5(96 


^KMESANBORN 


UC-NRLF 


4   bit   SSfc, 


KATE  SANBORN 


KATE  SAN BORN 


KATE  SANBORN 


JULY  n,  1839 
JULY   9,   1917 


BOSTON 

JXCcgRATH-SHERRILL  TRESS 
1918 


e     •       •      i  i      i 


T  T  might  be  said  of  Miss  Sanborn  that  her  best  memorial  is 
the  impression  that  she  left  upon  the  minds  of  those  who 
knew  her.  No  attempt  at  a  formal  written  memorial  would 
satisfy  the  friends  who  cherish  the  memory  of  her  living 
presence.  But  Miss  Sanborn  had  an  unusual  number  of  'friends , 
many  of  whom  may  value  the  reproductions  of  her  photographs 
and  a  brief  sketch  of  her  life.  She  was  a  pioneer  in  opening  the 
paths  of  independent  work  for  women,  and  her  success  was 
remarkable  and  inspiring.  It  seems  worth  while  also  for  all 
memoirs  to  be  preserved  that  help  to  illustrate  the  influence  of 
the  Puritan  stock  by  which  New  England  was  peopled.  While 
Miss  Sanborn  in  her  volume  of  "  Memories  and  Anecdotes  " 
has  given  a  series  of  pictures  of  her  experience  >  she  kept  her 
self  in  the  background^  and  there  is  still  opportunity  to  recall 
the  personal  factor  which  was  the  chief  secret  of  her  success. 

In  making  this  sketch  of  Miss  Sanborn  s  life  it  was  felt  that 
she  would  not  have  wished  anything  to  be  written  about  her 
that  was  solemnly  formal  or  tinged  with  melancholy.  Her 
character  was  remarkably  reflected  in  her  features  and  bearing 
and  for  that  reason  a  number  of  her  photographs  taken  at 
different  times  have  been  used.  Nothing  was  more  characteristic 
of  Miss  Sanborn  than  her  loyal  attachment  to  her  family  and 
friends.  It  would  hardly  be  possible  to  depict  her  life  without 
some  description  and  pictures  of  those  to  whom  she  was  most 
closely  related.  Special  attention  has  been  given  to  her  early 
associations  because  that  part  of  her  life  is  least  known  to  her 
fr  lends )  and  its  story  brings  out  her  genial  philosophy  of  living 
as  well  as  the  spirit  in  which  she  made  her  way  to  a  career 
of  rare  achievement. 


EDWIN  W.  SANBORN 


136  West  44th  Street 
New  York  City 


M101872 


KATE  SANBORN 

IN  estimating  all  that  has  been  given  to  the  nation 
by  the  old  New  England  stock,  it  is  generally 
recognized  that  the  women  played  at  least  as 
important  a  part  as  the  men.  But  the  mental  picture 
of  the  early  New  England  women  is  a  composite 
photograph,  a  picture  of  a  type  which  commands 
respect  for  its  unselfish  toil  and  devotion  at  home. 
We  think  of  few  instances  where  young  women  born 
in  a  New  England  village  went  out  into  the  world 
like  the  traditional  New  England  boy  and  made  their 
own  way  by  native  humor,  versatility,  energy  and 
intellectual  force.  Yet  the  inheritance  of  such  natural 
gifts  was  the  only  capital  with  which  Miss  Sanborn 
began  her  career,  and  she  always  acknowledged  the 
debt  to  her  New  England  ancestry  and  associations. 
She  specially  admired  the  character  of  her  mother's 
grandfather  Captain  Ebenezer  Webster,  a  fine  type  of 
the  New  England  pioneer.  As  a  young  man  he  fought 
with  the  famous  Rogers'  Rangers  in  the  French  and 
Indian  Wars —  at  Crown  Point,  Ticonderoga,  in  Can 
ada,  and  on  many  expeditions  into  the  northern  wilder 
ness.  When  the  French  wars  were  over  he  cleared  a 
farm  in  the  wilderness,  where  wolves  howled  and 
Indians  planned  their  raids,  and  built  a  log  cabin  of 
which  his  son  Daniel  said  that  its  smoke  rose  nearer 
the  frontier  of  Canada  than  that  of  any  other  settler. 
"When  the  alarm  of  war  with  England  sounded/1  to 


quote  from  Senator  Lodge,  "among  the  first  to  respond 
was  the  old  ranger  and  Indian  fighter  Ebenezer 
Webster.  In  the  town  which  had  grown  up  near  his 
once  solitary  dwelling,  he  raised  a  company  of  two 
hundred  men,  and  marched  at  their  head,  a  splendid 
looking  leader,  dark,  massive  and  tall,  to  join  the  forces 
at  Boston."  He  inherited  what  was  known  as  the 
Batchelder  complexion,  of  which  General  Stark  re 
marked  with  a  grin  that  it  was  useful  for  a  soldier,  as 
no  amount  of  gunpowder  could  blacken  it. 

His  company  guarded  the  headquarters  of  Washing 
ton  at  Dorchester  Heights  and  the  General  called  him 
into  consultation.  At  Bennington  he  was  remembered 
as  saying  to  his  men,  "  We  must  get  nearer,  boys," 
while  they  were  working  their  way  through  the 
brush  in  the  manner  of  Indian  fighters.  Miss  Sanborn 
kept  as  sacred  relics  a  pair  of  shoe  buckles  which  he 
wore  when  going  over  the  breastworks  of  the  British 
and  Hessians  at  the  head  of  his  men.  At  West  Point 
when  Arnold's  treachery  was  discovered,  General 
Washington  sent  for  Ebenezer  Webster  to  guard  his 
tent,  saying  with  a  smile,  "  Captain  Webster,  I  think 
I  can  trust  you."  It  is  a  tradition  that  Washington, 
distracted  over  the  treason  of  Arnold,  paced  back  and 
forth  for  most  of  the  night,  biting  nervously  at  the 
knotted  head  of  a  heavy  hickory  stick. 

His  neighbors  trusted  Captain  Webster  as  his  general 
had  done,  and  gave  him  every  office  in  their  gift.  He 
was  prompt,  resolute  and  determined,  but  as  Daniel 


10 


Webster  testified,  he  was  also  good-humored  and 
facetious.  "  He  was  religious,  but  not  sour,  having  a 
heart  that  he  seemed  to  have  borrowed  from  a  lion/' 

Of  the  value  of  inheritance  of  character  from  such 
a  man,  Senator  Lodge  says,  "  There  were  splendid 
sources  of  strength  in  this  man,  the  outcome  of  such 
a  race,  from  which  his  children  could  draw.  Force 
of  will,  force  of  mind,  force  of  character  ;  these  were 
the  three  predominant  qualities  in  Ebenezer  Webster. " 

Captain  Webster's  son,  Ezekiel  Webster,  was  gifted 
with  the  same  tall,  straight,  massive  figure,  and  the 
same  fine  traits  of  character.  The  lines  of  his  face  were 
marks  of  refinement  and  distinction.  Though  ener 
getic  and  determined,  he  was  hampered  by  modesty 
and  reserve.  Cap'n  Eb.  used  to  say  that  "  Ezekiel 
couldn't  tell  half  he  knew,  but  Daniel  could  tell 
more  than  he  knew."  Ezekiel  Webster  was  slow  in 
pushing  himself  forward  as  a  public  man,  but  at  the 
time  of  his  early  death  he  was  a  leader  of  the  bar  in 
northern  New  England,  and  among  the  most  dis 
tinguished  citizens  of  that  region. 

To  consider  one's  own  mother  as  the  best  mother 
that  ever  lived  is  the  natural  impulse  of  every  one. 
Miss  Sanborn  was  particularly  loyal  in  that  sentiment. 
Her  mother,  Mary  Webster  Sanborn,  one  of  the  two 
daughters  of  Ezekiel  Webster,  was  a  beautiful,  dainty, 
refined  woman  who  had  all  the  religious  fervor  of 
New  England,  the  unselfish  devotion  to  family  and 
to  every  sense  of  duty,  without  any  trace  of  harshness 

1 1 


or  narrowness.  She  was  gifted  with  gentle  humor 
and  a  sense  of  proportion,  with  a  rare  fund  of  human 
sympathy.  In  a  natural,  neighborly  way  she  carried 
help  to  all  who  were  poor  or  sick  or  disheartened. 
Even  now,  more  than  fifty  years  after  her  death,  there 
are  old  citizens  at  Hanover  who  are  deeply  affected 
at  any  reminder  of  her  friendship,  as  if  by  a  personal 
loss  of  yesterday.  Mrs.  Sanborn  had  marked  intellec 
tual  tastes  and  wrote  for  many  publications  of  her 
time.  She  understood  the  impulsive  temperament  of 
her  talented  daughter  Kate,  and  furnished  just  the 
right  touch  of  sympathy  and  encouragement. 

On  her  father's  side  Miss  Sanborn  was  equally  in 
debted  to  her  New  England  ancestry.  Her  father, 
Edwin  D.  Sanborn,  was  for  nearly  fifty  years  a  pro 
fessor  in  Dartmouth  College  except  for  a  few  years' 
connection  with  the  Washington  University  at  St. 
Louis.  In  his  later  life  his  department  was  that  of 
English  literature.  Professor  Sanborn  was  a  big  man 
in  body  and  mind.  He  had  broad  views,  practical  com 
mon  sense,  and  direct  methods  of  thought  and  action. 
He  was  one  of  the  old  type  of  college  professors 
whose  strong  personality  and  natural  gift  of  imparting 
knowledge  impressed  themselves  on  the  pupil.  If  he 
had  a  weakness  it  was  in  the  way  of  closing  the  eye 
which  happened  to  be  turned  toward  the  escapades 
and  delinquencies  of  the  young  men.  He  made  every 
effort  to  help  them  to  go  on  with  their  education. 
He  was  a  living  library  of  learning,  but  was  at  his 


12 


EZ E K 1  E L  WEBSTER 


best  when  pouring  forth  his  funds  of  information  in 
informal  talks.  He  was  beloved  as  well  as  respected 
by  half  a  hundred  classes  of  college  students. 

Professor  Sanborn's  father  was  a  worthy  example  of 
the  early  New  England  farmer.  He  gradually  acquired 
one  tract  of  land  after  another  in  the  town  of  Gilman- 
ton  until  he  owned  the  equivalent  of  a  square  mile  of 
hill  farms.  He  had  taught  school  as  a  young  man  and 
was  specially  proud  of  his  penmanship.  His  love 
letters  addressed  to  Miss  Hannah  Hook,  who  became 
his  wife,  are  beautiful  specimens  of  old-fashioned 
penmanship,  as  perfect  as  copperplate.  One  would 
have  no  hesitation  in  exhibiting  this  courtship  corre 
spondence,  as  every  letter  began  with  the  words 
"Honoured  Madam/'  and  the  formal  sentiments  were 
in  keeping  with  that  style  of  address.  Hannah  Hook 
Sanborn's  father,  "Gransir"  Hook,  was  an  ancestor 
whom  Miss  Sanborn  loved  in  memory  as  much  as  she 
admired  Captain  Eb.  Webster.  Gransir  Hook  was  the 
soul  of  quaint,  earthy,  New  England  humor  and  jolly 
good  nature.  He  was  a  living  confirmation  of  the 
"  laugh  and  grow  fat J>  adage,  and  his  testimony  con 
tinued  even  after  his  life  had  ended.  He  had  been  for 
many  years  confined  to  the  house,  and  to  remove  the 
prodigious  casket  after  the  funeral  it  was  necessary  to 
cut  away  the  wall  at  one  side  of  the  front  door. 

In  tributes  of  one  kind  or  another  which  Miss  San- 
born  received  during  her  life  and  in  letters  of  sympathy 
written  after  her  death,  the  adjective  most  commonly 

'3 


applied  to  her  was  the  word  "  unique/'  The  blending 
of  traits  which  came  to  her  from  the  ancestors  so 
briefly  sketched  may  interest  Miss  Sanborn's  friends 
as  explaining  the  unusual  combination  of  qualities  in 
her  character,  especially  her  driving  energy  and  a 
restless  aspiration  to  acquire  knowledge  and  to  accom 
plish  something  worth  while  ;  also  a  friendly,  helpful 
interest  in  people  about  her,  combined  with  quick 
wit  and  a  saving  sense  of  humor. 

Lest  it  might  appear  that  with  these  gifts  it  was 
easier  for  a  girl  of  that  time  to  make  her  way  in  the 
world  than  for  the  thousands  of  young  women  who 
are  now  facing  the  problems  of  active  life,  it  should 
be  considered  that  the  difficulties  which  confronted 
a  young  woman  at  that  time  were  more  serious  than 
now ;  difficulties  that  one  can  hardly  understand  who 
never  lived  in  the  grim  and  severe  atmosphere  of  the 
old-fashioned  New  England  village. 

Until  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
homespun  idea  in  rural  New  England  was  still  the  key 
to  everything  in  life  and  character.  Only  a  few  am 
bitious  young  men  were  prompted  to  go  out  into  the 
world.  Except  for  Boston  and  a  few  smaller  cities, 
the  outside  world  was  little  different  from  the  world 
at  home.  Following  a  habit  of  two  hundred  years  it 
had  become  the  natural  practice  for  young  people 
merely  to  remove  from  the  paternal  farm  to  another 
similar  farm  not  far  away.  Each  household,  like  each 
community  was  self-sustaining.  The  "independent 

"4 


From  a  daguerreotype 


MISS  SANBORN  AT  AN  EARLY  AGE 


farmer  "  was  really  independent.  He  produced  his  own 
food  and  clothing.  He  drew  sweetness  from  sugar 
maples  and  dipped  light  from  tallow.  He  made  his 
own  sleds,  brooms,  medicines,  and  often  his  own  tools, 
rope,  shingles,  boxes,  barrels,  and  furniture.  Miss  San- 
born  did  much  of  her  writing  at  a  desk  of  "  curly  " 
maple  which  Captain  Ebenezer  Webster  made  for 
his  own  use  after  he  became  a  judge  and  a  man  of 
business  affairs.  She  also  had  an  extraordinary  com 
bination  in  mahogany  of  bureau,  cabinet,  and  book 
case,  made  by  Deacon  Long  of  Hanover.  In  the  San- 
born  home  as  late  as  1870  candle  moulds  stood  on 
shelves  at  the  head  of  the  cellar  stairs.  Down  cellar 
in  a  dry,  soft  atmosphere  of  pleasing  mystery,  redolent 
of  Baldwins,  Pearmains,  and  Russets,  the  flickering 
candle  light  fell  on  shelves  of  homemade  preserves 
or  on  a  great  bin  of  potatoes  which  must  require 
"  sprouting  "  from  the  boys  of  the  family  on  Saturday 
afternoons  in  the  inviting  weather  of  springtime. 
There  were  piles  of  pumpkins,  squashes,  and  other 
potential  sources  of  pie.  One  who  was  sent  down 
cellar  to  consult  the  pork  barrel  had  to  be  careful  not 
to  stumble  over  or  into  a  long,  deep  tub  of  soft  soap. 
A  barrel  of  cider  passed  through  its  seasonal  phases  — 
the  too  brief  period  of  snap  and  tang  when  the  new 
cider  might  be  drawn  through  a  straw  ;  the  hard  cider 
stage  when  medicinal  doses  might  be  withdrawn  by 
mature  members  of  the  family  favored  with  signs  of 


rheumatism ;  and  the  final  lapse  into  the  austere  ma 
turity  of  vinegar. 

Upstairs  in  the  kitchen  the  walls  under  the  ceiling 
were  bordered  with  great  pieces  of  dried  beef  hanging 
from  hooks  and  with  festoons  of  dried  apples.  Out  in 
the  back  yard  forty  cords  of  wood  stood  in  long  piles 
to  carry  the  household  through  the  rigors  of  winter. 
Farmers  from  over  in  Vermont  hauled  in  the  wood 
in  cordwood  lengths  upon  sleds,  the  sleds  being  drawn 
by  oxen,  driven  with  much  vociferation  up  the  long 
hill  from  the  river.  A  dozen  of  these  sleds  stood  where 
the  principal  streets  of  the  village  crossed,  offering  an 
open  market  where  citizens  might  buy  maple,  birch, 
beech,  and  other  hardwood  fuels,  at  an  average  of 
$4.00  a  cord.  In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  several  mechanical  inventions  came  into  use,  but 
in  the  opinion  of  the  boys  of  that  time  the  most 
important  of  all  was  the  sawing  machine  which  moved 
from  one  house  to  another,  and  by  horse  power  sawed 
up  the  family  cord  wood.  The  privilege  of  splitting 
and  piling  the  wood,  and  of  serving  it  to  the  voracious 
stoves  and  open  fires  still  remained.  The  sawing  ma 
chine  is  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  in  the  early 
times  even  the  factories  came  to  the  individual  home, 
completing  the  sufficiency  of  home  life  and  diverting 
the  mind  from  the  leaving  of  home.  Even  if  one 
wished  to  get  away,  travel  was  no  easy  matter,  par 
ticularly  for  those  living  north  of  White  River  Junc 
tion.  Railroad  trains  were  drawn  by  small,  asthmatic 

16 


locomotives  having  large  smokestacks  shaped  like  an 
inverted  volcano.  Delays  were  frequent  to  slake  the 
thirst  of  the  engine  and  to  replenish  the  itinerant 
woodpile  which  served  as  fuel.  The  cars  had  low, 
flat  roofs  and  small,  cinder -cemented  windows  and 
were  but  little  better  ventilated  than  the  drawing 
room  cars  of  the  present  day.  Indeed,  the  thought  of 
travel  was  still  affected,  through  suggestion,  by  the 
Concord  Coach  idea.  The  Concord  coach  is  even  now 
lumbering  in  hundreds  of  villages  between  Main  Street 
and  the  depot.  It  presents  one  of  two  pictures  to  the 
mind.  We  see  it  rattling  along  at  a  jog  trot  pace, 
swaying  and  creaking  and  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of 
dust ;  or  else  it  is  dragging  slowly  on  a  heavy  road, 
the  spokes  of  its  wheels  painfully  lifting  huge  loads 
of  dripping  mire  and  mud.  Mud  or  dust  always  goes 
with  a  Concord  coach.  To  successive  generations 
travel  had  come  to  mean  doing  time  for  one  livelong 
day  after  another  in  a  stage  coach ;  and  this  mental 
attitude  had  made  the  stay-at-home  habit  the  more 
persistent. 

Of  course  Hanover  was  different  from  other  places 
in  being  a  New  England  village  plus  a  college;  but  the 
effect  was  to  intensify  rather  than  to  modify  the  pre 
vailing  scheme  of  things.  As  late  as  1850  all  the  col 
leges  of  New  England  were  "  seats  of  learning  "  of 
the  old-fashioned  sort.  At  the  opening  of  the  academic 
year  the  country  colleges  welcomed  the  candidates 
for  matriculation,  some  of  whom  still  arrived  on  a 

17 


farm  wagon,  drawn  by  the  horse  which  could  be  most 
easily  spared  from  farm  work,  and  bearing  the  blessing 
of  their  mothers  and  the  seed-cakes  of  their  grand 
mothers.  Chapel  exercises  were  held  before  daylight 
in  midwinter,  in  chapels  lighted  by  candles  and  heated 
by  the  Aurora  Borealis.  A  chronic  form  of  suicide, 
known  as  "boarding  one's  self,"  was  not  uncommon 
among  the  students.  The  lack  of  amusements  and  of 
rational  forms  of  exercise  led  to  such  laborious  forms  of 
pleasantry  as  gathering  the  blinds  and  gates  of  the 
village  upon  the  campus  or  the  elevation  of  a  horse 
or  cow  to  the  college  belfry. 

The  close  connection  of  the  college  with  the  rural 
life  about  it  appeared  at  commencement  week  when 
hundreds  of  farmers  drove  in  from  miles  around  and 
hitched  their  horses  along  the  Cemetery  Lane.  At 
one  end  of  the  campus  (then  called  the  common),  in 
the  College  Church,  were  performed  the  solemn 
ceremonies  of  commencement.  Everything  suggested 
local  sentiment  and  strong  individuality  of  mind  and 
person.  The  trustees  were  venerable  and  distinguished 
men,  each  accustomed  to  go  his  own  gait.  Their 
methods  of  procedure  were  so  eccentric  and  centrifu 
gal  that  the  master  of  ceremonies  found  it  no  easy 
task  to  round  them  up  for  the  formal  procession  to 
the  church.  Even  at  the  steps  of  the  sacred  edifice, 
with  a  sweltering  congregation  within  anxiously 
awaiting  their  arrival,  they  often  blocked  the  parade 
by  stopping  to  greet  friends  upon  the  side  lines.  When 

18 


MISS  SANBORN  TN  GIRLHOOD 


they  finally  made  their  way  up  the  steps  with  a  clatter 
of  canes  and  crutches,  the  courtly  marshal  had  gen 
erally  reached  a  state  of  profane  exasperation.  No 
less  than  twenty-four  members  of  the  graduating  class 
took  part  in  the  exercises  of  commencement,  their 
performances  consisting  of  discourses  in  Greek  and 
Latin,  Orations  and  "  Forensic  Disputations."  At  the 
further  end  of  the  campus  was  a  line  of  booths  where 
lemonade,  popcorn  and  other  refreshments  were  sold 
and  where  the  usual  features  of  a  country  fair  attracted 
a  crowd  of  visitors.  Dogs  and  small  boys  from  rival 
districts  engaged  in  disputations  which  were  not 
always  forensic. 

The  life  of  families  connected  with  the  college  was 
not  very  different  from  that  in  other  villages.  The 
professors  owned  large  gardens  or  small  farms  and 
their  spare  time  was  fully  occupied  with  the  outdoor 
and  indoor  cares  of  the  family.  Dwellers  in  the  apart 
ments  of  the  cities  can  form  no  idea  of  the  cares  of 
housekeeping  in  the  days  of  old.  Queer,  quaint  things 
were  constantly  happening,  often  trivial  or  ridiculous, 
but  going  to  make  up  a  vivid  record  of  household 
history.  The  localized  spirits  of  fire  and  water  were 
always  busy.  Pipes  froze  in  winter  and  were  parched 
by  the  droughts  of  summer.  The  big  chimney  in  the 
middle  of  Professor  Sanborn's  house  was  at  once  his 
reliance  for  comfort  and  the  disturber  of  his  peace. 
When  the  alarm  arose  that  "  the  chimney  is  on  fire/' 
the  family  rushed  to  the  leather  fire  buckets  which 

'9 


hung  in  the  front  hall.  They  formed  a  fire  line  and 
passed  up  water  to  protect  the  shingle  roof.  Salt  must 
be  carried  up  and  poured  down  the  flues.  In  the 
autumn  vast  colonies  of  chimney  swallows  made  them 
selves  at  home  in  the  big  chimney.  Once  when  a  fire 
was  started  early  in  the  season  they  became  confused 
by  the  smoke.  Hundreds  of  them  tumbled  down  and 
came  out  through  the  fireplace  into  the  family  parlor. 
In  the  morning  the  carpet  was  covered  with  several 
inches  of  soot,  and  the  chairs,  "what-not,"  and  Miss 
Kate's  Hallett  &  Davis  piano  were  by  no  means  neg 
lected.  At  another  time  in  the  sepulchral  silence  of 
a  winter  night  the  family  were  aroused  by  a  faint, 
ghostly  tinkle  of  the  front  door  bell.  The  next  night 
the  uncanny  sound  was  repeated.  The  head  of  the 
house  arose,  armed  himself  with  an  iron  poker  and 
opened  the  front  door.  Snow  was  gently  falling  but 
there  was  no  trace  of  footprints.  Even  while  he  stood 
there  shivering,  the  bell  rang  again  as  if  to  mock  his 
efforts.  The  house  seemed  fated  to  become  as  famous 
for  supernatural  disturbances  as  that  of  the  eminent 
theologian  in  Massachusetts  whose  abode  was  haunted 
so  long  by  mysterious  noises,  rappings  and  overturn- 
ings  of  furniture.  The  bell  knob  on  the  front  door 
was  connected  by  a  wire  with  the  bell  near  the  kitchen 
ceiling,  hanging  at  the  end  of  a  coil.  The  bell  wire 
ran  just  over  a  shelf  in  the  closet  at  the  head  of  the 
cellar  stairs.  The  rats  had  opened  a  passageway  through 
the  walls  on  either  side  and  were  using  this  shelf  as 


20 


3" 


a  nocturnal  thoroughfare,  setting  the  wire  in  motion 
in  their  hasty  passage.  Such  whimsical  happenings 
would  be  out  of  place  even  in  an  informal  sketch  of 
Miss  Sanborn's  life,  except  for  the  fact  that  they 
appealed  to  her  sense  of  humor  and  helped  to  develop 
her  power  of  telling  stories.  It  was  the  common  and 
amusing  incidents  of  daily  life  that  furnished  material 
for  her  earliest  efforts  as  a  writer.  To  write  in  a  sen 
sible  and  amusing  way  about  matters  of  everyday  life 
in  which  people  were  really  interested  was  then  some 
thing  of  an  innovation.  The  ordinary  tone  of  writing 
was  stilted  and  full  of  mild  moralizing.  For  a  chance 
example,  in  a  magazine  article  of  1852  describing 
the  wearing  apparel  of  early  New  England,  we  note 
after  a  description  of  the  shoes  of  the  period  that 
"  while  appendages  for  the  feet  are  properly  provided, 
true  ornaments  of  the  mind  and  heart  should  not  be 
neglected/'  It  was  the  first  evidence  of  Miss  Sanborn's 
initiative  that  in  this  formal  atmosphere  she  marked 
out  for  herself  a  new  field  of  literary  work  by  close 
observation  of  what  was  going  on  about  her  and  by 
describing  it  in  a  novel  style  that  was  fresh,  natural 
and  full  of  animation. 

In  recalling  her  early  memories,  Miss  Sanborn 
wrote :  "  I  can't  quite  go  back  to  quiltings,  spinning 
bees,  *  singing  meetings/  and  spelling  matches,  or  to 
the  shoemakers  who  went  from  house  to  house  with 
bench  and  lapstone,  making  a  supply  of  shoes  for  the 
whole  family,  nor  to  the  invaluable  tailoress  who  car- 

21 


ried  her  goose  and  pressboard,  but  I  distinctly  do  recall 
the  dressmaker,  who  came  to  us  with  big  shears  (I 
can  still  feel  them  clipping  round  my  neck)  and  brass 
thimble  without  a  top ;  who  made  our  dresses  for 
twenty-five  cents  a  day  ;  and  considering  the  creations 
evolved,  I  think  she  was  too  well  paid.  Money  was 
precious  and  scarce,  but  I  knew  nothing  of  the  mi 
serly  scrimping  and  meanness  that  are  often  allied  to 
close  economy.  Nor  did  I  see  aught  but  the  rosy  side 
of  farm  life  in  my  girlhood.  The  farmers  who  came 
to  our  door  with  their  produce  to  sell  were  our  friends 
and  benefactors,  well-to-do,  *  forehanded/  and  '  good 
providers '  for  their  own  families.  Two  of  these  I 
remember  with  real  affection.  The  first  was  Uncle 
Daniel  Farnum,  tall,  lank,  'lean-favored',  with  a  twin 
kling  eye  and  a  ready  smile.  He  called  potatoes  '  short 
sass;'  carrots,  beets,  etc.,  '  long  sass;'  and  spoke  of  steaks 
and  chops  as  *  low  meats '  in  distinction  from  roasts. 
In  his  bounteous  hospitality  he  was  always  urging  us 
to  'come  over'  in  sugaring-off  time,  cherry  time, 
plum  time,  hulled-corn  time,  beechnut  time,  molasses- 
candy  time,  etc. —  a  calendar  of  goodies  for  the  entire 
year.  He  inclined  to  an  alphabetical  arrangement  of 
his  family,  and  at  table  he  would  say  in  his  hearty 
way, '  Hannah  A.,  pass  the  butter;  Abner  B.,  run  down 
cellar  and  draw  a  little  cider;  Ella  C,  help  Kate  to 
cottage  cheese  made  to  hum;  Polly  D.,  you  tend  to 
that  pie/  He  became  at  last  a  little  crazed  by  the 
Millerite  doctrine,  and,  prudently  willing  his  prop- 

22 


MISS  SANBORN  AS  A  YOUNG  WOMAN 


erty  to  his  wife,  he  prepared  to  go  up.  Alcott  used 
to  say,  *  Each  one  may  decide  when  he  will  ascend/ 
and  dear  Uncle  Daniel  had  that  conviction  in  a  lit 
eral  fashion.  One  evening  he  donned  his  white  robe 
of  departure  —  his  'going-away  gown' —  and  mounted 
to  the  ridge-pole ;  but  receiving  no  supernal  summons 
nor  assistance,  returned  to  his  anxious  family  to  await 
orders. 

"  The  second  stand-by  was  white-haired,  rosy- 
cheeked,  blue-eyed  Father  Newton,  a  veritable  Cheer- 
yble  brother,  who  came  twice  a  week  with  goodies, 
and  whom  I  often  visited.  Oh,  the  delights  of  taking 
tea  there,  and  the  sense  of  repletion  that  followed ! 
Oh,  those  big  raised  biscuits,  the  three  kinds  of  sauce, 
four  or  five  varieties  of  cake,  and  always  pie  in  astound 
ing  variety  !  —  and  why  not  pie  when  one  can  get 
such  pies?  Beecher  knew  what  he  was  talking  about 
when  he  said  :  'Apple  pie  should  be  eaten  while  it  is 
yet  florescent,  white  or  creamy  yellow,  with  the 
merest  drip  of  candied  juice  along  the  edges ;  of  a 
mild  and  modest  warmth ;  the  sugar  suggesting  jelly, 
yet  not  jellied  ;  the  morsels  of  apple  neither  dissolved 
nor  yet  in  original  substance,  but  hanging,  as  it  were, 
between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh  of  applehood/ 

"And  do  you  understand  me  when  I  refer  to  a  'pan 
dowdy'  and  a  'brown  Betty'?  If  not,  I  condole  with 
you.  I  would  walk  ten  miles  tonight  to  get  again  the 
robust  welcome,  the  exuberant  happiness,  the  old- 
fashioned  sincerity,  not  omitting  the  well-spread  table, 

23 


of  those  old-time  visits.  It  has  been  the  lasting  remem 
brance  of  such  delights  that  made  me  aspire  to  a  farm 
and  a  country  home ;  and  my  highest  ambition  socially 
is  to  make  my  dear  friends  as  happy  around  my  table 
as  I  used  to  be  when  a  guest  at  'Jericho'." 

While  the  wholesome  pleasures  of  country  living 
were  enjoyed  and  appreciated,  no  one  had  dreamed  of 
the  developments  of  the  present  time  in  the  way  of 
outing  clubs,  winter  sports,  winter  carnivals,  and  sys 
tematic  nature  study.  The  boys  collected  birds'  eggs 
and  thought  they  had  reached  a  high  plane  as  scien 
tific  collectors  if  they  refrained  from  taking  away  the 
entire  domestic  establishment  of  the  birds.  The  girls 
pressed  leaves  and  flowers,  but  the  study  of  botany  was 
almost  neglected,  and  few  of  the  residents  of  the 
village  ever  sought  an  opportunity  to  peep  through  the 
telescope  of  the  college  observatory.  Veeries  and  her 
mit  thrushes  every  evening  in  the  late  spring  and  early 
summer  chanted  their  marvelous  antiphonal  music 
from  pine-clad  slopes  across  the  "  Vale  of  Tempe," 
but  very  few  people  thought  of  walking  up  to  attend 
this  concert  or  knew  the  names  of  the  performers.  Few 
could  identify  more  than  a  dozen  of  the  commonest 
trees  or  had  made  a  careful  study  of  wild  flowers  or 
shrubs. 

That  the  sense  of  natural  advantages  was  not  broader 
and  deeper  was  due  no  doubt  in  part  to  the  confined 
outlook  caused  by  primitive  means  of  locomotion.  It 
seemed  too  much  to  ask  of  the  faithful  family  horse 

24 


or  of  the  over-worked  livery  beast  to  climb  the  pinnacle 
of  Pineo  Hill,  only  a  few  miles  from  town,  or  to  drag 
through  the  sands  of  the  River  Road  for  a  dozen  miles 
to  the  village  of  Thetford  Hill,  from  which  a  beauti 
ful  view  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  and  of  the  north 
ern  mountains  might  be  enjoyed.  In  the  modern  era 
of  good  roads,  one  who  goes  back  for  a  summer  visit, 
and  is  invited  by  a  friend  to  whirl  about  in  his  car 
may  in  half  an  afternoon  visit  more  of  these  fair  Car- 
cassonnes  than  he  ever  dreamed  of  seeing  throughout 
his  life  at  Hanover.  There  was  an  occasional  oppor 
tunity  to  get  a  little  instruction  upon  subjects  outside 
the  formal  routine  of  school  and  college.  Professor 
Mark  Bailey  came  up  from  New  Haven  to  give  lessons 
in  elocution,  and  soon  after  the  Bissell  gymnasium  was 
opened,  the  Yale  instructor  in  athletics  came  to  Han 
over  and  in  addition  to  his  work  with  the  students, 
formed  classes  in  calisthenics  among  the  people  in 
the  village.  A  large  number  appeared  for  a  time  on 
the  floor  of  the  gymnasium  and  went  through  the 
movements  with  rings,  wands  and  wooden  dumbbells, 
but  the  interest  was  not  of  long  duration. 

Beside  the  college  library  and  a  circulating  library 
for  children,  there  were  good  book  stores  in  town. 
Through  the  Hanover  Pamphlet  Association  the 
magazines  of  the  day,  such  as  Littelts  Living  Age, 
Punch,  Harper  s,  and  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  were 
passed  around  from  house  to  house,  and  there  was  a 
similar  club  for  the  new  books  worth  reading.  Mag- 


azines  and  books  were  wrapped  in  a  cover  upon  which 
was  marked  the  length  of  time,  one  week  or  two 
weeks,  for  which  the  reading  matter  might  be  kept. 
It  was  then  sent  on  to  the  nearest  neighbor  whose 
name  was  on  the  list. 

Perhaps  the  rarest  privilege  that  Hanover  offered 
was  the  association  with  men  and  women  of  culture, 
character  and  strong  individuality.  The  enforced 
economy  of  professors  in  the  college  made  the  orna 
mentation  of  their  homes  a  matter  of  slight  concern. 
In  the  home  of  Professor  Sanborn  few  objects  of  art 
can  be  recalled  other  than  discarded  whale-oil  lamps 
on  the  mantel  and  a  few  sea  shells  brought  back  by  a 
missionary  to  the  Orient.  A  religious  publication  called 
the  Christian  Union,  an  ancestor  of  the  Outlook,  aroused 
great  interest  by  the  announcement  that  it  would  give 
to  every  subscriber  two  pictures  which  should  be 
triumphs  of  the  newly  perfected  art  of  making  chro- 
mos.  The  two  chromo  pictures  were  entitled  Wide 
Awake  and  Fast  Asleep,  and  when  they  arrived  were 
carefully  installed  in  the  dining  room.  Both  of  these 
phrases  might  well  be  applied  to  the  Hanover  of  1 860. 
In  the  seclusion  of  a  winter  six  months  long  and  six 
feet  deep,  the  outlook  from  a  morning  window 
revealed  a  scene  of  hibernation.  No  sign  of  life  except 
pillars  of  smoke  rising  straight  up  from  chimneys 
around  the  common.  No  sign  of  movement  until  the 
snow  plow  came  nosing  its  way  along  the  sidewalk 
and  opened  the  path  to  the  postoffice.  Some  of  the 

26 


MARY  W.  SANBORN 


"advanced  thinkers"  of  the  time  might  have  charged 
that  the  intellectual  life  of  the  place  was  not  wide 
awake.  But  even  if  narrow  it  was  surely  awake.  If 
thought  was  not  as  broad  as  at  the  present  time,  it 
was  perhaps  as  deep.  In  a  small  group  of  intellectual 
persons  of  neighborly  disposition  and  vitally  interested 
in  the  best  things,  the  friendships  were  full  of  satis 
faction.  There  were  interesting  and  stimulating  people, 
some  of  them  educational  institutions  in  themselves. 
President  Nathan  Lord,  a  rugged  old  Roman,  ranked 
with  the  best  of  the  great  college  presidents.  He  not 
only  had  the  power  of  imparting  his  sturdy  traits  to 
other  individuals,  but  stamped  them  upon  the  college 
itself.  The  professors  were  forceful  characters  and 
interesting  neighbors.  In  a  chapter  on  "  Bygones " 
Miss  Sanborn  said  of  the  Dartmouth  teachers  : 

"  College  professors  in  a  fresh-water  college  had  but 
starvation  salaries.  How  did  they  manage  to  live  com 
fortably  on  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  entertaining 
willingly  and  generously  the  anxious  parents  of  wild 
students,  ministers  who  exchanged,  agents  for  various 
societies,  commencement  orators,  and  stray  mission 
aries  ;  as  well  as  to  give  class  parties,  supply  themselves 
with  needed  books,  and  educate  their  families  ?  One 
of  the  trustees  had  but  three  hundred  dollars  per  year 
as  a  pastor ;  yet  he  lived  well,  kept  a  horse  and  cow, 
and  educated  three  children.  Of  course,  they  could 
not  afford  to  travel  much. 

"  I  remember  one  professor  saying  of  an  associate 

27 


instructor  :  *  John  needs  to  travel  to  rub  off  sharp  cor 
ners  and  broaden  his  views.  If  he  could  only  get  to 
White  River  Junction,  or  possibly  as  far  as  Thetford, 
it  would  be  an  immense  advantage/  But  those  same 
professors,  overworked,  underpaid,  restricted  by  nar 
row  incomes  and  narrower  codes  of  life,  were  scholars 
and  heroes,  and  knew  how  to  make  men  out  of  the 
rough,  gawky  material  sent  from  the  even  poorer  fam 
ilies  in  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont/' 

Among  other  residents  of  the  village  Dr.  Dixi 
Crosby  was  an  ideal  example  of  the  old-time  country 
doctor.  Skilled  in  his  profession,  full  of  practical  wis 
dom  and  story-telling  humor,  his  visits  made  a  mod 
erate  attack  of  illness  seem  like  an  enviable  experience. 
There  could  have  been  no  more  charming  or  lovable 
neighbor  than  Professor  Putnam,  to  whom  Miss  San- 
born  paid  a  beautiful  tribute  in  her  book  of  Memories 
and  Anecdotes.  The  eloquent  Professor  Patterson,  who 
had  become  a  senator  at  Washington,  brought  home 
absorbing  stories  from  the  center  of  national  life. 

There  was  an  occasional  function  at  Hanover  which 
showed  perhaps  better  than  any  other  the  neighborly 
cooperation  of  the  people  and  the  versatility  of  their 
talent.  This  was  called  an  "  illumination  "  and  was 
observed  only  on  rare  occasions  such  as  an  important 
anniversary  or  the  celebration  of  a  Civil  War  victory. 
There  was  a  torch-light  procession  in  the  evening 
and  every  window  of  every  house  on  the  line  of  the 
parade  was  illuminated.  The  light  was  furnished  by  a 

28 


THE  FACULTY  AT  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE  IN  THE    'FIFTIES 


short  tallow  candle  standing  on  a  three-cornered  bit 
of  tin  plate  which  was  fastened  to  the  sash  at  the 
middle  of  the  window.  The  Illuminati  within  were 
kept  busy  running  from  one  window  to  another  to 
trim  the  candles,  keep  them  in  place,  and  prevent 
their  setting  fire  to  the  shades  or  curtains.  A  local 
band  at  the  head  of  the  procession  played  patriotic 
airs.  Prominent  citizens  were  called  out  to  the  porches 
of  their  homes  to  make  speeches ;  and  they  were  as 
good  speeches  as  could  be  heard  anywhere  —  easy, 
scholarly,  witty,  and  eloquent.  It  seldom  failed  that 
a  flaring  candle  in  at  least  one  house  set  fire  to  some 
thing  ;  and  the  Hanover  Hook  and  Ladder  Company 
was  then  evoked  to  make  the  affair  complete.  On 
such  occasions,  as  well  as  in  their  daily  life,  the  people 
were  influenced  by  a  friendly,  community  feeling. 
The  village  illuminations  were  hardly  worthy  to  hold 
a  candle  to  the  blaze  of  lights  of  every  late  winter  after 
noon  in  a  range  of  great,  modern  office  buildings. 
But  those  illuminations  are  made  by  electric  machin 
ery  at  a  central  station.  The  office  boy  or  janitor  turns 
on  the  light  by  pushing  a  button.  In  the  social  life  of 
Hanover  every  individual  kept  his  own  light  trimmed 
and  burning.  There  was  the  advantage  which  belongs 
to  people  of  homogeneous  stock,  all  inheriting  the 
same  traditions,  all  having  the  same  fine  and  worthy 
aims,  all  leading  the  same  sort  of  life,  but  every  one 
doing  his  work  in  a  characteristic,  individual  way. 
Some  of  the  remarkable  men  described  in  the  Mem- 

29 


ones  and  Anecdotes  returned  to  Hanover  at  certain  sea 
sons  to  deliver  courses  of  lectures.  One  of  them  was 
Dr.  Benning  Crosby  who  had  reached  the  front  rank 
among  the  surgeons  of  New  York  when  his  life  was 
cut  short.  In  his  professional  visits  he  seldom  needed 
to  use  any  other  medicine  than  the  smile  and  the 
stories  that  he  brought  into  the  sick  room.  When  a 
family  needed  to  be  cheered  up  he  could  convulse 
them  by  imitating  and  impersonating  some  local 
character  who  happened  to  be  passing  the  house.  If 
a  dignified  personage  was  approaching  to  make  a  call, 
Dr.  Ben  would  depict  in  exact  detail  just  what  the 
visitor  was  about  to  do  and  say.  And  this  was  done  in 
such  a  way,  even  in  the  presence  of  the  victim,  that 
no  one  could  take  offence.  Other  such  visitors  were 
the  learned  and  golden-tongued  Dr.  Ordronaux  and 
Dr.  John  Lord,  the  brilliant  and  eccentric  lecturer 
on  history.  On  academic  occasions,  and  especially  at 
commencement,  there  were  many  alumni  who  enjoyed 
coming  back  for  a  visit  at  Hanover  —  such  men  as 
"  Uncle  Sam/'  Taylor,  of  the  Andover  Phillips  Acad 
emy,  in  education;  "Long  John "  Wentworth  of 
Chicago  among  men  of  affairs;  and  General  Noyes, 
Governor  of  Ohio  and  Minister  to  France,  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  public  life.  Men  of  this  stamp  coming  in 
a  vacation  spirit  and  enjoying  stimulating  talks  liked 
to  meet  together  at  Professor  Sanborn's,  on  the  vine- 
covered  piazza,  or  in  the  big  "  study"  which  occupied 
a  wing  of  the  house,  with  domed  ceiling  and  with 

3° 


'Froiu  a  'daguerreotype 


PROFESSOR  EDWIN  D.  SANKORN 


the  old  picture  wall  paper  exhibiting  scenes  around 
the  Bay  of  Naples.  Their  stories,  rallies,  monologues, 
and  Homeric  laughter  were  worthy  of  a  classic  setting. 
Miss  Kate  as  a  girl  and  a  young  woman  was  a  wel 
come  listener  at  such  times  and  contributed  witty 
pictures  of  local  characters  and  happenings  as  well  as 
bright  comments  on  current  literature. 

Even  during  the  long  summer  vacation  interesting 
people  came  to  Hanover.  It  was  a  tribute  to  the  place 
as  a  summer  resort  that  they  continued  to  come  in  spite 
'  of  the  hardships  and  vicissitudes  of  life  at  Frary's  Hotel. 
Among  these  summer  visitors  or  residents  were  John 
E.  Parsons,  one  of  the  acute  leaders  of  the  New  York 
bar,  and  Mr.  Hitchcock,  proprietor  of  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Hotel.  They  sought  recreation  on  the  com 
mon  in  front  of  the  Sanborn  House  with  Professor 
Young,  the  astronomer,  who  came  from  his  studies 
of  the  celestial  spheres  to  concentrate  his  mind  on 
croquet  balls.  Other  visitors  who  stirred  the  imagina 
tions  of  young  people  at  Hanover  were  the  famous 
personages  who  came  as  orators  or  poets  at  commence 
ment  or  as  features  of  the  Lecture  Course.  Of  those 
who  were  entertained  at  her  father's  home,  Miss  San- 
born  mentions  Rufus  Choate,  Edward  Everett,  Frank 
lin  Pierce,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Wendell  Phillips,  Dr. 
Holmes,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  President  Eliot,  James 
T.  Fields,  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  Edwin  P.  Whipple, 
Walt  Whitman,  John  G.  Saxe,  and  Joachim  Miller. 

In  accounting  for  the  remarkable  men  and  women 

31 


sent  out  from  rural  New  England  about  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  it  is  necessary  to  consider 
all  these  three  factors,  of  inheritance,  environment, 
and  the  influences  that  filtered  in  from  the  outside 
world.  It  seems  to  be  the  general  conclusion  of  his 
torical  writers  that  the  greatest  of  these  was  inherit 
ance.  From  secluded  farms  where  there  was  almost 
no  stimulus  from  without  and  very  little  chance  for 
education,  there  came  forth  national  figures  of  which 
Horace  Greeley  is  an  example.  The  Hanover  region 
was  favored  in  being  a  fairly  fertile  country  along  the 
Connecticut  River,  where  the  struggle  for  a  liveli 
hood  was  not  too  repressing,  and  in  being  the  seat  of 
two  educational  institutions,  Dartmouth  College  and 
the  Norwich  Military  Academy  just  across  the  river 
in  Vermont.  These  attracted  a  supply  of  the  material 
for  successful  careers,  but  the  result  seemed  to  be  a 
fruition  of  long  continued  moral,  physical,  and  intel 
lectual  forces.  At  a  dinner  of  the  New  Hampshire 
Society  in  New  York  it  was  undertaken  to  show  in  a 
jocular  way  that  men  who  had  lived  or  were  educated 
within  twenty  miles  of  the  town  pump  on  the  Han 
over  Common  had  done  more  to  influence  the  destiny 
of  the  American  nation  than  those  living  or  educated 
within  the  same  radius  of  the  City  Hall  in  New  York. 
In  this  David  and  Goliath  competition  the  smaller 
champion  at  least  was  not  annihilated.  At  the  first 
great  crisis,  the  mind  of  the  nation  was  prepared  to 
meet  the  onslaught  of  disunion  by  Daniel  Webster. 

32 


When  the  Civil  War,  deferred  to  a  more  favorable 
time,  at  last  broke  out,  the  sinews  of  war  were  de 
veloped  by  men  from  within  the  Hanover  circle.  The 
entire  financial  legislation  of  Congress  from  1861  to 
1865  might  be  said  to  be  the  work  of  Justin  S.  Morrill, 
a  resident  of  Strafford,  just  across  the  Connecticut.  The 
financing  of  bond  issues  and  the  control  of  the  national 
treasury  were  under  the  charge  of  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
born  near  Hanover  and  graduated  at  Dartmouth. 
Thaddeus  Stevens  furnished  the  element  of  bitter  and 
indomitable  persistence.  Both  Dartmouth  and  the 
military  school  at  Norwich  supplied  an  extraordinary 
proportion  of  men  to  the  active  service;  several  of  the 
Dartmouth  men  reaching  the  rank  of  brigadier  - 
general.  The  honor  roll  of  the  Norwich  University 
in  the  Civil  War  numbered  over  five  hundred  officers, 
of  whose  careers  that  of  General  Grenville  M.  Dodge 
was  a  noble  example.  To  the  navy  the  Norwich 
school  furnished  three  rear-admirals,  four  commanders, 
and  a  host  of  other  officers. 

When  a  crisis  came  in  the  foreign  policy  of  the  nation 
at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  War,  Nelson  Dingley  filled 
the  position  which  Morrill  had  occupied  in  1861. 
When  President  McKinley  wanted  guidance  on  the 
momentous  issues  involved,  he  sent  to  Cuba  Senator 
Redfield  Proctor  on  whose  judgment  he  relied  and  on 
whose  report  his  decision  was  based.  The  man  of  action 
in  that  war,  Admiral  Dewey,  though  a  graduate  of  the 
Naval  Academy,  received  three  years  of  his  educa- 

33 


tion  at  Norwich.  During  the  period  from  1 894  to  1 899 
two  successive  governors  of  the  State  of  New  York 
had  lived  at  Hanover  —  L.  P.  Morton,  who  began 
there  his  business  career,  and  Frank  S.  Black  a  grad 
uate  of  the  college.  Although  most  of  the  New 
Hampshire  emigration  tended  toward  Boston  or  the 
West,  it  happened  at  the  period  in  question  that  the 
proprietor  of  the  best  known  hotel  in  New  York  city 
was  a  Hanover  man.  The  editor  of  the  leading  news 
paper  was  born  in  Hanover  and  educated  at  the 
college.  Within  recent  years  the  district  attorney, 
surrogate,  and  three  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  had 
come  from  Dartmouth.  In  the  medical  profession 
men  born  within  the  Hanover  pale  and  sons  of  the 
college  were  leaders  in  general  medicine,  in  surgery, 
and  in  neurology.  Two  graduates  and  presidents  of 
Dartmouth  had  been  pastors  of  the  most  influential 
churches.  Men  of  the  same  antecedents  were  at  the 
front  in  engineering  and  in  business  affairs. 

It  was  one  of  many  illustrations  of  the  influence 
which  went  out  from  small  communities  when  the 
New  England  stock  after  the  middle  of  the  century 
spread  itself  over  the  land,  and  it  suggests  the  eager 
plans  and  hopes  which  must  have  filled  the  thought 
of  young  people  in  those  communities.  The  opportu 
nity  for  expansion  was  offered  by  the  rapid  extension 
of  railroads,  the  building  of  factories,  and  the  opening 
of  new  markets.  The  discovery  of  gold  on  the  Pacific 
coast  aggravated  the  Western  fever,  and  was  followed 

34 


From  a  daguerreotype 


MRS.  E.  D.  SANBORN 


by  the  inspiring  events  of  an  Elizabethan  age  —  wars 
and  rumors  of  wars  and  a  vast  romance  of  discovery 
and  settlement. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  the  young  men  caught 
the  fever  and  went  out  to  make  their  fortunes ;  but 
with  the  young  women  it  was  different.  Horace 
Greeley's  advice  was  Go  West,  young  man!  There 
was  no  reason  why  an  independent  career  for  young 
women  should  occur  to  him.  A  man's  sphere  was  the 
round  world,  but  a  woman's  sphere  was  in  the  home. 
It  was  the  rule  of  formal  tradition  that  a  woman  must 
not  intrude  upon  any  field  of  work  which  men  had 
preoccupied,  particularly  if  any  publicity  was  involved. 
The  rigid  rules  of  the  Puritan  regime  were  enforced 
by  an  almost  ferocious  public  sentiment.  Wendell 
Phillips  is  sometimes  quoted  as  saying  that  the  Puri 
tan  hell  would  be  a  place  where  every  one  had  to 
mind  his  own  business.  A  minister's  wife  after  a 
perturbed  pastorate  in  a  village  of  Western  Massa 
chusetts,  described  the  place  as  having  the  quiet  of 
the  grave,  without  its  peace.  This  less  amiable  feature 
of  rural  life  made  it  almost  impossible  to  do  anything 
out  of  the  ordinary.  Cards  and  dancing  were  not  only 
inventions  of  the  Devil,  but  any  one  who  counten 
anced  them  was  thought  to  be  going  to  their  inventor. 
Of  this  Miss  Sanborn  wrote  in  the  chapter  on  Bygones  : 
66  Students  were  forbidden  to  play  cards,  and  the  en 
joyable  games  of  whist  or  euchre  or  cribbage  were 
also  forbidden  in  the  homes  of  the  faculty.  But  the 

35 


boys  played  on  the  sly.  Once  the  inspector,  with  an 
other  teacher,  entered  a  room  suddenly  where  a  quiet 
game  was  progressing.  Lights  went  out  as  suddenly  as 
the  door  had  opened ;  there  was  a  shuffling  and  a 
scuffling,  and  all  was  still.  The  culprits  were  dragged 
forth  from  various  retreats.  A  negro  had  hidden  under 
the  bed.  *  He  need  not  have  done  that/  said  Professor 
Putnam,  *  he  had  only  to  keep  dark/  ' 

An  estimable  French  lady  wrho  came  to  Hanover 
upon  some  religious  or  charitable  mission  lost  her 
influence  and  almost  her  reputation  by  tossing  a  rub 
ber  ball  to  her  little  boy  on  the  Sabbath  day.  To  quote 
from  the  Memories :  "  On  the  Lord's  Day  children 
were  not  allowed  to  read  the  ToutH s  Companion  or  to 
pluck  a  flower  in  the  garden.  Life  then  was  a  solemn 
business  at  Hanover ;  a  yearly  concert  at  commence 
ment  and  typhoid  fever  in  the  fall/' 

In  spite  of  difficulties  in  the  way,  Miss  Sanborn  even 
as  a  young  girl  was  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  the  times 
and  made  up  her  mind,  as  the  phrase  was,  to  get  out 
and  do  something.  The  principal  avenues  not  entirely 
closed  to  young  women  were  in  teaching  and  literary 
work ;  and  she  felt  that  her  unusual  advantages  in 
education  might  be  put  to  practical  use  in  those 
directions.  She  had  begun  the  study  of  Latin  at  the 
age  of  eight  years,  and  under  the  tutelage  of  her 
father  and  his  associates  had  followed  closely  the 
courses  of  study  in  school  and  college.  She  had  been 
"finished"  in  music  at  Andover  and  in  elocution  and 

36 


A  SILHOUETTE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

By  Edouard,  the  French  silhouettist  who  came  to  America  in  1840  and  made  silhouettes 
of  several  thousand  persons  among  them  Mr.  Webster  and  his  nieces 


other  branches  at  Boston.  The  circumstances  of  her 
early  training  were  well  described  in  one  of  the  news 
paper  reviews  of  her  life  work  : 

"  Kate  Sanborn  was  born  to  write.  The  atmosphere 
of  her  youth  was  literary  to  the  core,  and  she  seized 
upon  the  advantages  of  her  surroundings  naturally  and 
with  conspicuous  eagerness,  avidity,  and  adaptability." 

There  was  also  truth  in  the  remark  of  another  re 
viewer  that  "  She  was  educated  in  that  inspired  and 
casual  way  so  frequent  in  earlier  times."  Such  methods 
were  characteristic  of  the  period,  and  as  expressed  by 
a  writer  in  the  Providence  Journal,  "  Kate  Sanborn 
was  one  of  a  group  of  American  women  whose  clever 
ness  and  individuality  seem  to  have  belonged  particu 
larly  to  a  certain  period."  The  striking  feature  of 
Miss  Sanborn's  training  was  that,  before  the  day  of 
systematic  education  for  women,  she  adapted  herself 
to  conditions  as  they  were,  making  the  utmost  of  her 
advantages  and  finding  ways  to  overcome  the  disad 
vantages.  In  fact  she  may  be  said  to  have  been  largely 
self-educated  in  the  sense  of  seeking  out  the  sources 
of  education  and  acquiring  the  taste  for  books.  In 
later  life  she  wrote  half  a  dozen  brief  common-sense 
essays  on  such  subjects  as  Tact  as  a  Virtue,  The  Art  of 
Making  Gifts,  Fashion  and  How  Far  to  Follow  It,  and 
Making  Friends  of  Books.  They  were  published  by  the 
Society  of  Christian  Endeavor.  In  the  essay  last  named 
she  said :  "  Those  old  authors  were  my  best  friends. 
In  fact,  they  made  my  fortune.  I  go  to  books  when 

37 


tired  or  nervous,  and  they  rest  and  cheer  me  ;  when 
worried  and  anxious,  and  cares  are  forgotten ;  when  I 
am  ill  or  suffering,  they  do  me  as  much  good  as  the 
doctor.  They  are  always  the  same,  never  capricious, 
never  *  hurt/  never  censorious,  never  find  fault,  or  gos 
sip  ;  and  between  the  covers  of  the  right  kind  of  books 
you  will  find  the  sure  road  to  success.  Select  a  subject, 
and  stick  to  it,  making  friends  of  all  the  books  on  that 
theme;  then  use  the  knowledge  with  enthusiasm  and 
tact,  and  your  success  is  certain." 

Miss  Sanborn  had  made  her  first  venture  as  an  author 
when  a  girl  in  short  frocks,  eleven  years  of  age ;  hav 
ing  written  some  bright  little  stories  which  were  pub 
lished  and  paid  for.  She  began  her  work  as  a  teacher 
while  still  in  her  'teens,  opening  a  school  in  a  long 
room  in  the  ell  of  her  father's  house,  over  the  wood 
shed.  Here  she  gathered  a  few  children  and  made  the 
work  of  learning  so  interesting  that  the  number  in 
creased  to  nearly  fifty.  It  was  in  1859  when  she  was 
twenty  years  old  that  her  father  was  called  to  the 
Washington  University  at  St.  Louis  and  she  was  offered 
the  opportunity  of  teaching  classes  of  girls  in  the  In 
stitute  connected  with  the  University. 

Returning  to  Hanover  four  years  later,  Miss  Kate 
looked  about  for  other  opportunities  in  writing  and 
teaching.  A  firm  of  Boston  publishers  had  started  a 
weekly  paper  for  young  people  called  the  Youth* s 
Companion.  Thinking  it  a  venture  rather  beneath  their 
own  dignity,  they  placed  at  the  head  of  the  paper  the 

38 


name  Perry  Mason  &  Co.,  an  entirely  imaginary 
firm  of  publishers.  The  Youth 's  Companion  became  a 
great  success  and  offered  good  rewards  for  contribu 
tions.  Through  the  friendly  offices  of  Elizabeth  Stuart 
Phelps,  Miss  Sanborn  began  to  write  for  the  Companion. 
Her  first  story  for  the  children  was  about  a  young 
black  and  tan  dog  at  home  which  had  taken  over  the 
name  of  Rab.  The  dog  was  a  character,  and  his  biog 
rapher  drew  a  vivid  picture  of  his  mischief,  faithful 
friendship  and  singular  adventures.  The  children  en 
joyed  reading  of  funny  or  lovable  traits  that  they  had 
noticed  unconsciously  in  their  own  pets,  but  had  per 
haps  never  spoken  of  or  put  into  words.  They  felt  as 
if  it  were  a  story  of  their  own  experience.  Next  Miss 
Sanborn  found  material  in  the  activities  of  her  brother 
and  his  friends,  all  about  ten  years  old.  They  ran  home 
in  a  great  fright  after  seeing  a  strange  monster  in  the 
middle  of  the  river.  It  stayed  near  one  place,  but 
would  rear  up  its  head  in  an  awful  way  and  then  dive 
down.  It  had  long  hair  and  "  ears  that  kept  a-floppinV 
This  beast  proved  to  be  a  water-soaked  log,  one  end 
of  which  had  sunk  to  the  bottom  while  the  upper 
end,  upon  which  drifting  weeds  and  rubbish  had 
lodged,  bobbed  up  and  down  in  the  current.  The  boys 
finding  that  their  swimming  hole  was  becoming  shal 
low  went  down  below,  around  a  bend,  to  build  a  dam. 
When  their  backs  were  well  blistered  by  the  sun, 
they  went  after  their  shirts,  to  find  that  the  cows  in 
the  pasture  attracted  probably  by  the  starch  in  those 

39 


garments,  had  chewed  them  to  a  pulp.  They  held  an 
indignation  meeting  and  proceeded  to  the  house  of 
the  owner  of  the  pasture.  They  set  forth  the  facts  of 
the  outrage  and  held  up  some  strings  of  front  buttons 
which  were  all  that  was  left  of  the  shirts. 

"And  now  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?" 

"  Dew  abaout  it  ?  Nawthin'  !  " 

To  be  doing  nothing  is  a  condition  that  never  applied 
to  Miss  Sanborn.  Her  mind  was  always  full  of  new 
plans  and  of  ideas  suggested  by  books  or  by  progres 
sive  people.  While  making  use  of  every  opportunity 
for  writing  she  taught  classes  of  young  women  at  Til- 
den  Seminary  in  an  adjoining  town  and  her  experience 
here  decided  her  to  look  for  broader  work  in  the  lec 
ture  field.  The  Lyceum  was  a  power  in  education 
which  brought  all  the  oratorical  Mahomets  of  the 
country  to  the  mountains  of  New  England.  They 
were  to  be  envied  for  their  influence  and  reputation 
as  well  as  for  the  agreeable  reaction  on  their  pockets. 
Dr.  Chapin  used  to  say  that  he  valued  the  fame  de 
rived  from  lecturing,  F-A-M-E  standing  for  Fifty 
And  My  Expenses.  Dr.  Holmes,  as  Miss  Sanborn  re 
ports,  having  given  one  of  his  charming  lectures  in 
the  missionary  spirit  at  a  small  place,  where  no  amount 
had  been  agreed  upon,  his  charges  were  discussed  with 
the  Lecture  Committee.  "  We  had  calkerlated,"  said 
the  spokesman,  "  to  make  it  five  dollars  ;  but  it  wa'n't 
exackly  what  we  expected,  and  we  have  conclooded 
that  tew-fifty  would  be  abaout  right !" 

40 


Women  were  barred  from  the  lecture  field  by  reason 
of  its  publicity,  though  a  few  like  Mrs.  Livermore 
by  reason  of  patriotic  service  during  the  war  were 
allowed  special  consideration.  Miss  Sanborn  had  given 
to  the  girls  at  Tilden  Seminary  a  series  of  talks  on  the 
English  poets  which  were  published  in  1868  by  the 
Appletons  and  attracted  attention  by  their  novel  style. 
As  the  poet  Whittier  wrote  to  the  author,  "  Its  racy, 
colloquial  style  enlivened  by  anecdote  and  citation, 
makes  it  anything  but  a  dull  book/'  Mr.  Whittier 
also  commended  its  analysis  of  character  and  estimates 
of  literary  merit.  Home  Pictures  of  English  Poets  was 
passed  upon  favorably,  as  to  its  educational  value,  for 
use  as  a  text  book  in  the  schools  of  New  York  city, 
but  its  acceptance  was  blocked  by  comments  on  relig 
ions  and  races  that  were  natural  in  rural  New  England 
but  not  so  well  suited  to  cosmopolitan  New  York. 
The  success  of  her  talks  on  literary  topics  emboldened 
Miss  Sanborn  to  deliver  lectures  outside  of  academic 
walls.  Such  a  venture  was  considered  unwomanly,  and 
Miss  Sanborn  records  that  her  father,  who  was  not 
generally  emotional,  was  moved  to  tears  by  severe 
words  of  rebuke  and  criticism.  The  interest,  charm, 
and  wit  of  the  lectures  attracted  crowded  houses,  with 
chairs  in  the  aisles  and  people  sitting  on  the  window 
sills.  Influential  friends  were  found  all  over  New  Eng 
land  who  sent  invitations  to  the  young  lecturer.  The 
governor  of  Vermont  invited  her  to  his  home  town. 
When  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  she  was  asked  by  Dr.  Ban- 

41 


croft  to  entertain  the  inmates  of  the  State  Lunatic 
Asylum.  Another  (former)  state  governor  now  con 
fined  in  the  asylum  shook  hands  with  her  heartily 
after  the  lecture  and  assured  her  that  it  was  "just  about 
right  for  us  lunatics."  It  was  a  good  test  of  Miss  San- 
born's  humor  that  she  never  missed  an  opportunity 
of  telling  jokes  at  her  own  expense. 

Having  done  so  well  near  home,  Miss  Sanborn  made 
up  her  mind  to  seek  a  broader  field.  She  found  a  place 
as  teacher  in  one  of  the  well-known  schools  for  girls 
in  New  York,  soon  making  a  reputation  that  brought 
her  an  invitation  to  teach  at  the  Packer  Institute  in 
Brooklyn.  Here  she  won  the  friendship  of  Anne 
Lynch,  afterwards  Mrs.  Botta,  through  whom  she  was 
admitted  to  the  acquaintance  and  sincere  regard  of  a 
host  of  interesting  and  distinguished  people,  and  had 
now  attained  all  that  she  asked  for,  an  ample  opportu 
nity. 

In  her  early  ventures  from  Hanover  and  while  mak 
ing  her  way  in  New  York,  Miss  Sanborn  was  still 
aided  by  her  home  associations,  especially  by  the  loving 
encouragement  of  her  sister  Mary  (Mrs.  Paul  Bab- 
cock)  and  of  her  grandmother,  Mrs.  Ezekiel  Webster. 
To  speak  of  a  New  England  woman  of  the  earlier 
times  as  faultless  in  character  might  suggest  the  idea 
of  prim  severity  or  of  traits  more  to  be  admired  than 
loved.  But  when  the  New  England  type  came  to  its 
maturity  in  a  broader  and  more  happy  life,  there  were 
developed  among  the  women  in  many  households, 

42 


A  HOME-MADE  SILHOUETTE  TRACED   FROM  SHADOW  PICTURE 


characters  as  nearly  perfect  as  could  well  be  asked  for 
in  human  nature.  Mrs.  Webster  was  born  with  the 
nineteenth  century  and  lived  to  her  ninety-sixth  year, 
or  almost  to  the  century's  end.  After  the  sudden  death 
of  her  husband  in  1829  she  never  remarried,  always 
cherishing  the  feeling  that  "  she  would  rather  be  the 
widow  of  Ezekiel  Webster  than  the  wife  of  any  other 
man."  When  Miss  Sanborn's  mother  died  in  1864 
Mrs.  Webster  took  the  place  of  a  mother  and  remained 
in  the  household  until  Miss  Kate  had  gone  to  New 
York.  If  any  conceivable  grace  or  charm  of  mind  or 
person  or  character  was  missing  in  "  Grandma  Web 
ster,"  her  devoted  friends  never  noticed  the  omission. 
Her  slight  and  frail  presence  was  a  tower  of  strength, 
for  into  the  daily  life  of  shifting  scenes  and  pressing 
cares  it  brought  a  vision  of  something  real  and  endur 
ing.  Yet  she  was  no  colorless  saint,  but  was  full  of 
alert,  practical  human  interest  in  the  things  of  every 
day  life.  Mrs.  Webster  was  an  expert  in  backgammon 
and  other  games  and  "  as  eager  to  win  as  a  child." 
Up  to  the  very  end  of  her  long  life  she  was  the  most 
delightful  of  companions,  and  as  Miss  Sanborn  wrote 
of  her,  "  her  life  is  still  a  stimulus,  an  inspiration,  a 
benediction."  Her  serene  spirit  and  wise  encourage 
ment  were  a  never-failing  help  to  Miss  Kate  as  long 
as  she  remained  at  home. 

Miss  Sanborn's  sister  Mary,  six  years  younger  than 
herself,  was  a  contrast  in  appearance  and  temperament. 
She  inherited  the  dark  hair  and  complexion  of  the 

43 


Batchelders  and  a  calm  unruffled  disposition.  When 
the  sisters  were  little  children  there  lived  in  their  home 
a  character  known  as  "  Old  Henry  "  who  had  offici 
ated  for  years  as  hired  man  upon  the  farm  of  Professor 
Sanborn's  father.  Miss  Kate  used  to  delight  to  recall 
his  comment  that  "  Mary  never  made  him  no  trouble, 
but  Kate  was  a  'tarnal  torment/'  While  they  had 
many  traits  in  common,  there  were  also  qualities  that 
were  in  a  fortunate  way  complementary.  The  fact 
that  her  sister  Mary  (Mrs.  Babcock)  upon  her  mar 
riage  removed  to  New  York,  had  a  great  influence 
on  Miss  Sanborn's  career.  It  opened  a  home  for  her 
there  and  furnished  invaluable  encouragement.  All 
might  be  said  of  Mrs.  Babcock  that  has  been  said  of 
Mrs.  Webster,  who  became  a  frequent  visitor  at  the 
Babcock  home.  They  were  both  ideal  friends  and 
helpers,  loving  a  laugh,  thinking  of  everything  but 
themselves  and  intensely  interested  in  everything 
worthy  of  their  interest.  Mrs.  Babcock  had  received 
much  the  same  educational  training  as  her  sister  and 
believed  like  her  in  making  friends  of  books.  She  en 
joyed  turning  off  witty  and  graceful  verses  and  her 
serious  writing  was  a  model  of  clear,  direct,  vigorous 
English.  Her  character  was  of  a  kind  that  met  every 
test  of  trial  and  affliction.  She  lost  her  children,  one 
after  another,  and  then  her  beloved  husband.  In  her 
later  years  she  became  detached  from  many  interests 
by  serious  deafness.  Yet  by  force  of  character  she  fixed 
her  mind  on  sensible  and  useful  interests  and  followed 

44 


From  a  later  daguerreotype 


MISS  SAN  HORN'S  MOTHER 


them  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  girl.  A  season  like 
Christmas  which  might  naturally  be  a  time  for  having 
the  blues,  she  made  the  culminating  event  of  her  year. 
As  Christmas  came  on,  her  home  became  piled  with 
packages  which  would  carry  to  friends  and  especially 
to  those  who  needed  remembrance,  a  reminder  of  her 
never-failing  smile  of  hearty  greeting.  A  glimpse  of 
Miss  Kate's  reliance  on  the  strong  and  loyal  support 
of  her  sister  appears  in  the  account  of  her  first  lecture 
in  New  York: 

"  Through  the  kind  suggestions  of  Mrs.  Botta,  I 
was  asked  to  give  talks  on  literary  matters  at  the  house 
of  one  of  New  York's  most  influential  citizens.  This 
I  enjoyed  immensely.  Soon  the  large  drawing-rooms 
were  too  small  for  the  numbers  who  came.  Next  we 
went  to  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
to  the  library  there,  and  later  I  decided  to  engage  the 
church  parlors  in  Doctor  Howard  Crosby's  church. 
"  On  the  day  for  my  first  lecture  the  rain  poured 
down,  and  I  felt  sure  of  a  failure.  My  sister  went  with 
me  to  the  church.  As  we  drew  near  I  noticed  a  string 
of  carriages  up  and  down  the  avenue.  *  There  must 
be  a  wedding  or  a  funeral/  I  whispered,  feeling  more 
in  the  mood  of  the  latter,  but  never  dreaming  how 
much  those  carriages  meant  to  me.  As  I  went  timidly 
into  the  room  I  found  nearly  every  seat  full,  and  was 
greeted  with  cordial  applause.  My  sister  took  a  seat 
beside  me.  My  subject  was  Spinster  Authors  of  England. 
My  hands  trembled  so  visibly  that  I  laid  my  manu- 

45 


script  on  the  table,  but  after  getting  in  magnetic  touch 
with  those  before  me,  I  did  not  mind.  The  reporters 
whom  I  found  sharpening  their  pencils  expectantly, 
gave  correct  and  complimentary  notices  and  my  suc 
cess  was  now  assured/' 

The  following  outline  of  Miss  Sanborn's  life,  partic 
ularly  after  she  had  made  a  place  for  herself  in  New 
York,  is  taken  from  the  Boston  Transcript  of  July 
9,  1917: 

Miss  Sanborn's  education  was  remarkably  broad  and 
thorough  for  a  girl  of  that  time.  While  little  more  than  a 
girl  she  began  educational  work  herself,  teaching  at  several 
schools  in  New  York  and  at  the  Packer  Institute  in  Brook 
lyn.  She  was  invited  to  pass  a  winter  in  the  home  of  Mrs. 
Vincenzo  Botta  of  New  York,  who  gathered  around  her 
table  and  at  her  "Saturday  evenings"  the  most  distinguished 
men  and  women  of  the  day.  Here  Miss  Sanborn  attracted 
friendships  by  her  keen  wit,  vivacity  and  originality,  and 
began  to  form  an  acquaintance  with  interesting  people  which 
widened  throughout  her  life. 

It  was  through  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Botta  that  she  became 
a  pioneer  among  women  in  the  lecture  field.  She  hit  upon 
attractive  titles  for  her  lectures,  such  as  Spinster  Authors  of 
England,  Bachelor  Authors  in  Types,  Literary  Gossips,  Are 
Women  Witty? ',  Tortures  from  Terrific  Talkers,  Unintentional 
Nonsense,  The  Perils  and  Benefits  of  Egotism,  and  Our  Early 
Newspaper  Wits.  Miss  Sanborn  had  the  rare  gift  of  getting 
at  the  gist  of  a  subject  as  well  as  of  condensing  her  material. 
Her  style  was  both  graceful  and  effective  and  always 
brightened  by  her  sense  of  humor.  The  success  of  her 
lectures  and  of  her  classes  in  current  literature  was  also 
due  to  her  fine,  magnetic  presence  and  to  the  charm  of  her 
well-trained  voice. 

In  1880  Miss  Sanborn  was  invited  to  Smith  College  as 
professor  of  English  literature,  a  position  which  she  filled 


PROFESSOR  SANBORN  AT  THE  AGE  OF  SEVENTY 


for  three  years,  made  additionally  busy  by  lecturing  and 
literary  work.  After  leaving  Smith  College  she  made  a 
lecturing  tour  through  the  Middle  West.  Following  a  break 
down  in  health  she  became  interested  in  an  old  farm  at 
Metcalf,  Mass.,  about  25  miles  from  Boston.  After  several 
years  of  outdoor  life  she  told  her  experiences  in  Adopting 
an  Abandoned  Farm,  a  book  which  had  a  large  sale  and  took 
its  place  among  American  works  of  humor.  Later  she  re 
moved  to  another  farm  nearby  which  became  her  permanent 
summer  home. 

In  spite  of  infirmities  which  would  have  depressed  most 
people,  Miss  Sanborn  devoted  herself  with  never-failing 
energy  and  enthusiasm  to  beautifying  the  place,  to  practical 
farming  and  housekeeping,  to  congenial  literary  work  and 
to  the  entertainment  of  friends.  Her  controlling  impulse 
seemed  to  be  the  wish  to  be  of  service  to  those  about  her, 
especially  to  those  who  most  needed  help. 

During  her  life  on  the  farm  Miss  Sanborn  wrote  a  number 
of  books  upon  subjects  which  especially  interested  her — 
The  Wit  of  Women>  Old  Time  Wall  Papers  and  My  Literary 
Zoo.  She  became  interested  in  the  statues  of  Indians  once 
so  commonly  used  as  the  signs  of  tobacconists,  and  issued 
an  illustrated  booklet  under  the  title  Hunting  Indians  with 
a  Taxicab.  She  was  always  an  appreciative  friend  of  dogs, 
and  in  the  last  year  of  her  life  brought  out  a  handsomely 
illustrated  book  entitled  Educated  Dogs  of  To-day.  In  1915 
Miss  Sanborn  collected  her  reminiscences  of  interesting 
persons,  under  the  title  Memories  and  Anecdotes.  Though 
her  strength  at  that  time  hardly  permitted  careful  arrange 
ment  or  revision,  the  book  sketched  an  unusual  and  in 
spiring  career  and  presented  vivid  pen  pictures  of  such  men 
as  Emerson,  Beecher,  Greeley,  Mark  Twain,  John  Hay, 
James  T.  Fields,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  Wendell 
Phillips,  Walt  Whitman  and  William  Cullen  Bryant;  and 
of  such  women  as  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Harriet  Hosmer, 
Mary  A.  Livermore  and  Frances  Willard. 

Miss  Sanborn's  talent  for  presenting  compact  information 
in  attractive  form  appears  in  her  little  volume  A  Truthful 

47 


Woman  in  Southern  California,  that  State  being  a  region  for 
which  she  felt  strong  attachment.  A  favorite  diversion  was 
the  making  up  of  calendars,  several  of  which  were  books  of 
permanent  value,  containing  selections  on  special  subjects, 
chosen  with  critical  judgment  from  a  wide  variety  of  authors. 
Miss  Sanborn  was  repaid  for  this  work  by  the  letters  con 
stantly  received  from  grateful  readers  of  the  Indian  Summer 
Calendar  (selections  on  the  Indian  summer  of  life)  and  of  The 
Starlight  Calendar,  on  the  faith  in  immortality.  In  fact  few 
persons  have  so  large  a  personal  correspondence.  The  ladies 
who  had  been  her  pupils  at  the  Packer  Institute  and  at 
Smith  College  formed  of  themselves  a  large  group  of  life 
long  friends  who  never  missed  an  opportunity  of  showing 
their  appreciation  and  attachment. 

Miss  Sanborn  truly  believed  that  in  one's  relations  to  life 
the  mere  passing  of  years  has  little  to  do  with  age.  In  her 
later  years  she  again  took  up  her  residence  in  New  York, 
but  returned  to  the  farm  in  summer.  On  the  day  before  she 
was  stricken  with  fatal  illness  she  was  never  more  animated 
or  full  of  the  enjoyment  of  life  and  of  energetic  plans  for 
the  future.  One  of  her  last  acts  was  to  administer  a  bracing 
talk  to  a  caller  who  came  in  a  despondent  mood  and  com 
plained  that  he  had  nothing  to  live  for.  Kate  Sanborn  had 
reached  age  but  could  never  have  become  a  victim  of  old 
age.  When  nearly  unconscious  she  repeated  what  a  friend 
had  written  in  a  recent  letter — Be  as  young  as  you  always 
have  been. 

The  features  of  special  interest  in  Miss  Sanborn's 
career  as  outlined  in  the  'Transcript  have  been  more 
fully  pictured  in  her  Memories.  It  has  been  remarked 
by  more  than  one  of  those  who  knew  her  intimately 
that  she  had  a  wonderful  life.  Amelia  E.  Barr  wrote 
to  her :  "  I  think  you  have  been  a  fortunate  woman, 
and,  *  it  sounds  like  stories  from  the  land  of  spirits  if 
any  man  obtains  that  which  he  merits/  "  It  was  a  re- 

48 


markable  experience  for  a  young  woman  coming  from 
her  quiet  country  home  to  receive  so  rapid  recognition; 
to  be  offered  a  place  in  a  school  of  the  highest  rank ; 
to  make  an  immediate  success  of  large  classes  in  cur 
rent  literary  topics ;  to  be  invited  for  the  classes  and 
for  lectures  to  such  homes  as  those  of  Dr.  J.  G.  Hol 
land  and  President  Barnard  of  Columbia ;  to  attract 
crowded  audiences  of  the  "  best  people "  at  public 
lectures ;  to  succeed  Mark  Twain  in  conducting  the 
humorous  department  of  a  leading  magazine ;  to  be 
chosen  as  instructor  in  English  literature  at  Smith 
College ;  to  make  a  tour  of  lecturing  through  the 
West  which  was  literally  a  series  of  ovations ;  to  be 
able  to  retire  to  an  ideal  life  upon  a  New  England  farm 
and  to  enjoy  a  long  Indian  summer  in  congenial  liter 
ary  work  and  in  the  entertainment  of  interesting 
guests.  In  the  tribute  in  the  'Transcript  from  which 
citations  have  been  made,  Miss  Sanborn  was  described 
as  teacher,  author,  lecturer,  humorist,  optimist,  and 
advocate  of  country  living.  No  doubt  it  was  a  natural 
result  of  Miss  Sanborn's  marked  individuality  and  her 
impatience  of  narrow  and  formal  methods  that  she 
became  a  pioneer  in  her  several  interests.  This  was 
especially  true  of  her  methods  as  a  teacher.  In  the 
Brooklyn  Eagle  of  July  15,  1917,  there  was  an  appre 
ciative  notice,  occupying  several  columns,  from  the 
pen  of  a  critical  writer  who  was  familiar  with  her 
work  at  the  Packer  Institute.  He  says: 
"  Very  early  Miss  Sanborn  chose  teaching  for  her 

49 


profession.  She  seems  to  have  been  a  born  teacher,  an 
unconscious  teacher  if  the  records  of  her  experience 
at  Packer  are  to  be  taken  as  a  criterion  of  her  expe 
rience  elsewhere.  Although  Miss  Sanborn  in  her  naive 
account  of  her  examination  for  the  position  at  Packer 
seemed  not  to  realize  it,  she  doubtless  established  a 
new  method  of  teaching  which  has  been  followed  at 
Packer  with  such  signal  success  ever  since  the  day  of 
her  ordeal  half  a  century  ago.  Miss  Sanborn  was  a 
pioneer  among  women  lecturers,  and  her  experiences 
as  given  in  her  last  book,  Memories  and  Anecdotes  — 
an  autographic  copy  of  which  Miss  Sanborn  presented 
to  Packer  recently  —  are  witty  in  the  extreme,  and  so 
vivid  are  her  character  sketches  of  those  she  met  in 
her  lecture  experiences  that  one  seems  personally  to 
know  the  friends  of  the  author  and  to  have  traveled 
with  her  far  afield.  The  author-lecturer  seemed  to 
have  a  peculiar  ability  for  getting  at  the  bottom  facts 
or  hitting  the  nail  on  the  head,  and  with  all  her  clear 
thinking  there  was  always  the  leaven  of  mirth  that 
lifted  the  plainest  statement  of  facts  into  the  realm  of 
good  literature.  Miss  Sanborn  may  also  be  credited  as 
being  first  in  the  field  of  talks  upon  current  literature 
or  topical  talks.  For  years  before  this  popular  way  of 
imparting  facts  to  other  women  came  into  fashion 
under  the  name  of  current  events  classes,  Miss  Sanborn 
was  in  effect  doing  the  very  thing  that  now  occupies 
cultured  women  everywhere.  Horace  Greeley  and 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  were  among  the  friends  and  asso- 

50 


MRS.  EZEKIEL  WEBSTER 


elates  of  Miss  Sanborn  and  it  is  doubtful  if  she  received 
more  mental  nourishment  from  them  than  she  impart 
ed  — for  those  of  Brooklyn  who  still  remember  her 
say  that  she  was  never  dull,  and  still  so  fine  was  her 
sense  of  proportion  and  of  fitness  of  things  that  she 
never  for  all  her  cleverness  became  pedantic  or  seemed 
aught  than  a  delightful  comrade,  ready  to  give  her  best 
for  those  who  needed  her  gifts  of  heart  or  head.  She 
was  for  the  full  allotted  span  associated  with  educa 
tion,  and  was  successful  in  the  highest  degree  as  a 
maker  of  books,  a  lecturer,  and  teacher/' 

Miss  Sanborn  herself  gives  some  glimpses  of  her 
freedom  from  what  she  described  as  "  teachery " 
formality.  "  It  was  a  great  opportunity  to  help  young 
girls  to  read  in  such  a  way  that  it  would  be  a  pleasure 
to  their  home  friends,  or  to  recite  naturally  in  com 
pany  as  was  then  common.  We  gave  an  exhibition  of 
what  they  could  do  in  reading  and  recitation,  and  the 
chapel  was  crowded  to  the  doors.  I  offered  to  give  in 
my  classes  lessons  in  '  How  to  tell  a  story '  with  ease, 
brevity,  and  point,  promising  in  every  case  to  give  an 
anecdote  of  my  own  suggested  by  theirs.  This  pleased 
them,  and  we  had  a  jolly  time.  The  first  girl  who  was 
called  upon  told  a  story  of  her  grandfather  who  was 
very  deaf. '  You  may  have  seen  him  sitting  on  the  pulpit 
stairs  of  Mr.  Beecher's  church  holding  to  his  ear  what 
looks  like  a  skillet.  Once  when  wakened  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  he  went  down  stairs  and  cautiously  opened 
the  kitchen  door.  He  reached  out  his  skillet  trumpet 

5* 


before  him  at  the  partly  opened  door,  and  the  milk 
man  poured  in  a  quart  of  milk/  The  girl  was  ap 
plauded  and  deserved  it.  Then  they  asked  me  for  a  milk 
story.  I  told  them  of  a  milkman  who  in  answer  to  a 
young  mother  who  complained  that  the  milk  he 
brought  for  her  baby  was  sour,  replied  :  <  Well,  is  there 
anything  outside  of  the  sourness  that  doesn't  suit  you  ?' 

"  We  had  many  visitors  interested  in  the  work  of 
the  various  classes.  One  day  Beecher  strolled  into  the 
chapel  and  wished  to  hear  some  of  the  girls  read. 
All  were  ready.  One  took  the  morning  paper  ;  another 
recited  a  poem ;  one  read  a  selection  from  her  scrap- 
book.  Beecher  afterward  inquired  :  *  Whom  have  you 
got  to  teach  elocution  now  ?  You  used  to  have  a  few 
prize  pumpkins  on  show,  but  now  every  girl  is  doing 
good  original  work/  ' 

At  Smith  College  Miss  Sanborn  applied  to  the  higher 
education  the  same  purpose  by  which  she  had  inspired 
her  younger  pupils  —  to  interest  the  student,  to  teach 
her  to  think  for  herself  and  to  gain  ideas  that  should 
make  life  more  worth  the  living.  "  I  used  no  special 
text  book  while  at  Smith  College,  and  requested  my 
class  to  question  me  for  ten  minutes  at  the  close  of 
every  recitation.  Each  girl  brought  a  commonplace 
book  to  the  recitation  room  to  take  notes  as  I  talked. 
Some  of  them  showed  great  power  of  expression  while 
writing  on  the  themes  provided.  There  was  a  monthly 
examination,  often  largely  attended  by  friends  from 
out  of  town/' 


MRS.  MARY  SANBORN  BABCOCK 


Dr.  L.  Clarke  Seelye,  who  was  then  and  for  many 
years  the  President  of  Smith  College,  in  writing  of 
Miss  Sanborn's  service  says :  "  She  was  a  stimulating 
and  original  teacher  and  a  delightful  companion/'  One 
of  her  Northampton  friends,  writing  in  the  Hamp 
shire  Gazette  of  July  igth,  expresses  the  same  ideas 
more  fully :  "  With  the  death  of  Kate  Sanborn  on 
July  gth,  one  of  the  most  striking  personalities  of  that 
little  group  of  sincere  workers  who  comprised  the 
faculty  of  Smith  College  during  its  early  days  passed 
away.  Kate  Sanborn,  working  by  her  own  methods, 
inspired  her  pupils  with  her  own  enthusiasm  for  Eng 
lish  literature,  so  stimulating  their  curiosity  and  direct 
ing  its  gratification  that  many  of  them  have  borne 
testimony  to  a  life-long  appreciation  of  the  best  books 
that  they  owed  to  her.  She  was  always  a  leader  rather 
than  a  taskmaster,  and  her  success  as  a  teacher  was 
due  no  less  to  her  intimate  knowledge  of  literature  than 
to  her  own  winning  charm,  her  quick  wit,  and  her 
force  of  character."  One  of  her  former  pupils  wrote 
to  her  not  long  ago,  "  You  did  more  for  me  than  any 
teacher  I  had  at  Smith,  for  you  kindled  my  imagin 
ation  and  knocked  out  of  me  some  New  England 
conventionalities."  Another  lady  who  when  a  student 
in  the  college  assisted  Miss  Sanborn  in  some  of  her 
literary  work,  and  is  especially  qualified  to  express  the 
feeling  of  her  pupils,  has  written  recently : 

"  To  me  she  was  most  inspiring.  She  not  only  made 
her  own  subject  interesting,  but  she  related  it  to  many 

53 


other  subjects.  Many  vistas  she  opened  for  me  for 
which  I  shall  ever  be  grateful.  Her  enthusiasm,  her 
keen  sense  of  humor,  her  unexpected  turns  of  ex 
pression,  and  her  freedom  from  conventional  methods 
of  teaching  did  much  to  unlock  my  reserved  New 
England  temperament.  In  short,  I  gained  from  her 
more  that  has  proved  of  real  value  to  me  than  from 
any  teacher  I  ever  had." 

While  at  Northampton  Miss  Sanborn  devised  her 
"Round  Table"  series  of  literature  lessons  which  is 
evidence  of  the  thorough  and  systematic  qualities  of 
her  scholarship.  In  the  form  of  charts  she  condensed 
an  immense  fund  of  instructive  information  applying 
to  each  of  twenty-five  periods  in  English  literature, 
accompanied  by  suggestions  for  study  of  the  period, 
lists  of  special  readings,  subjects  for  essays,  character 
izations  of  each  author  and  of  each  school,  choice 
quotations  and  notes  of  important  events.  As  one  critic 
said,  "  It  shows  marvellous  power  of  concentration  and 
monumental  drudgery."  These  literature  lessons, 
which  have  been  out  of  print,  are  to  be  republished 
by  an  educator  who  was  impressed  with  their  value 
and  will  be  made  permanently  useful. 

In  the  delivery  of  her  lectures  Miss  Sanborn's  person 
ality  played  as  important  a  part  as  in  her  teaching.  She 
was  regarded  with  admiration  and  affection  by  her 
women  contemporaries  who  were  active  in  literary  or 
other  work,  and  vivid  pictures  of  Miss  Sanborn  as  a 
lecturer  are  found  in  letters  written  by  those  ladies. 

54 


MISS  SAN  BORN  WHILE  A  TEACHER  AT  SMITH  COLLEGE 


Mrs.  Abba  Goold  Woolson  wrote  :  "  Miss  Sanborn's 
lectures  are  a  delight  to  her  listeners;  and  that  she 
enjoys  them  herself  no  one  can  doubt  who  watches 
the  bright,  animated  face  and  sparkling  eyes  with 
which  she  communicates  her  thoughts,  and  which 
serve  to  give  an  added  meaning  and  piquancy  to  her 
wit.  She  deals  with  literary  topics  that  are  out  of  the 
common  course,  and  her  style  of  treatment  is  always 
fresh  and  original.  Solid  information  there  is  in 
abundance,  but  it  is  enlivened  by  sudden  flashes  of  wit, 
and  a  pervading  atmosphere  of  good  humor  and  good 
sense.  Her  enunciation  is  something  admirable;  the 
tones  are  pure,  the  words  clear-cut,  even  to  the  last 
consonant,  and  uttered  with  ease  and  naturalness." 

Mrs.  Louise  Chandler  Moulton  wrote  of  Miss  San 
born's  lectures  in  Boston :  "  She  has  a  charming  pres 
ence;  a  voice  rich,  sweet,  and  exquisitely  modulated, 
and  the  very  unusual  power  of  imparting  alike  the 
utmost  expression  to  pathos,  and  the  keenest  point  to 
an  epigram.  The  first  lecture  to  which  I  listened  — 
The  Pets  of  Great  Men —  delighted  me  by  its  freshness 
and  brightness ;  but  the  second —  Vanity  and  Insanity r, 
the  Shadows  of  Genius — held  me  absorbed  in  a  yet  deeper 
interest.  The  wealth  of  illustration  which  enriched 
these  lectures  was  marvellous.  The  weaknesses  of  the 
great  men  were  touched  so  piquantly,  yet  so  tenderly, 
and  the  tragedies  that  darkened  their  lives  were  dwelt 
upon  so  reverently  and  so  sympathetically,  that  one  was 
constantly  compelled  to  the  closest  sympathy." 

55 


In  looking  back  upon  Miss  Sanborn's  work  as  an 
author,  one  is  struck  by  her  versatility  and  her  wide 
range  of  interests.  She  wrote  educational  works  upon 
literature,  a  book  of  travel  and  observation  in  Southern 
California,  a  volume  upon  old-time  wall  papers,  a 
psychological  study  entitled  The  Vanity  and  Insanity 
of  Genius,  practical  and  humorous  books  upon  farm 
life,  and  a  study  of  the  educational  capacity  of  dogs. 
All  these  varied  themes  were  subjects  in  which  the 
author  felt  an  intense  interest,  and  her  literary  work 
in  every  case  was  the  expression  of  her  animated  and 
inspiring  nature.  As  was  said  by  "The  Nomad"  of  the 
Boston  Transcript:  "  Those  who  read  her  very  own 
books  read  the  woman  and  found  her  a  well  of  sun 
shine  that  no  disappointment  or  sickness  or  sorrow 
could  permanently  darken/' 

A  large  number  of  the  press  notices  which  appeared 
after  Miss  Sanborn's  death  recognized  the  serious  value 
of  her  writings  upon  farm  life.  An  article  in  the  New 
Haven  Register  of  July  nth,  under  the  title  A 
New  England  Humorist,  speaks  of  her  as  "  a  pioneer 
in  the  'back  to  the  farm'  movement  which  of  late  years 
has  taken  so  firm  a  hold  upon  the  people  of  this 
country.  Undoubtedly  Kate  Sanborn's  Adopting  an 
Abandoned  Farm,  aside  from  its  humorous  qualities, 
did  more  to  turn  the  attention  of  New  England  people 
to  the  possibilities  of  escape  from  the  rush  and  bustle 
of  the  cities  than  any  other  book  published  at  the 
time.  The  book  has  taken  its  place  among  the  stand- 

56 


ard  works  of  American  humor."  Under  the  title  A 
Literary  Farmer,  the  ^Tribune  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  of  July  1 2th  says:  "  It  is  many  years  since  the 
publication  of  that  absorbingly  interesting  book, 
Adopting  an  Abandoned  Farm,  but  its  author  lived 
long  enough  to  see  a  full  realization  of  its  object — and 
many  a  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  women,  even 
literary  women,  can  make  farming  pay  and  retain 
their  self-respect.  It  is  reasonable  to  think  that  she 
derived  less  satisfaction  from  her  success  in  strictly 
literary  endeavor  than  from  seeing  her  ideas  of  farming 
adopted  and  practised  by  many  American  women/' 
In  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger  it  was  remarked 
that  "Many  followed  her  example  in  seeking  out  old 
places  and  turning  them  into  homes  fit  to  live  in.  The 
movement  was  a  beneficial  one  in  all  respects,  and  it 
helped  to  engender  a  taste  for  country  life  which  has 
been  an  important  factor  in  the  present  efforts  to  in 
crease  the  store  of  food." 

Here  is  an  example  of  Miss  Sanborn's  serious  and 
sensible  advice : 

"  I  want  now  to  talk  seriously  about  farming  as  a 
paying  and  satisfactory  business  for  women.  I  notice  in 
papers  and  magazines  amateurish,  optimistic  articles 
on  this  theme  which  have  had  a  false  and  dangerous 
influence  upon  the  piteous  army  of  impecunious  and 
unemployed  women  who  are  eagerly  looking  for 
something  to  do  and  some  practical  method  of  self- 
support.  These  articles  speak  of '  dairying '  as  pleasant 

57 


and  profitable;  poultry,  mushrooms,  violets,  market 
gardening,  etc. —  treating  all  in  an  airy,  fairy  fashion 
that  shows  little  intimacy  with  the  truth  of  it. 

"To  begin  with,  dairying  is  not  a  business  that  can 
well  be  carried  on  by  women.  As  an  honest  farmer 
said  to  me:  'I  wouldn't  bother  with  too  many  cows. 
They're  allus  a-goin'  out  or  a-comin'  in,  or  a-dryin' 
up,  or  farrar  or  chokin'  themselves,  or  losin'  their  cud, 
or  gettin'  out  o'  paster,  or  may  be  inclined  to  hookin', 
and  they  die  easy,  though  they  look  tough/ 

"No  desirable  man  can  be  hired  for  small  wages, 
and  valuable  cows  range  in  price  from  fifty  to  three 
hundred  dollars.  One  must  have  capital  to  commence. 
It  is  hard  to  find  a  market,  at  least  a  paying  market, 
for  milk;  harder  to  collect  the  money. 

"  The  romantic  word  pictures  in  novels  of  rosy  milk 
maids,  snowy  arms,  dimpled  elbows,  pretty  white 
aprons,  golden  butter,  yellow  cream,  red  lips,  cool, 
shaded  dairy,  rows  of  shining,  well-filled  pans,  are 
attractive,  but  the  reality  is  vastly  different — at  least 
in  Metcalf ! 

"For  those  who  seriously  contemplate  cows  as  an  easy 
means  of  support,  I  would  suggest  that  they  first  try 
to  lead  two  frisky,  frightened  calves  from  the  pasture 
to  the  barn  when  a  sudden  thunder-storm  is  on  and 
your  so-called  '  help  '  has  not  returned  from  Rumford, 
and  the  nine  cows  are  vociferously  entreating  some  one 
to  do  the  milking.  I  have  known  that  experience.  Or 
to  churn  on  some  hot,  *  muggy '  morning,  when  the 

58 


'^4:% 


MISS  SANBORN  AFTER  BEGINNING  HER  ACTIVE  LIFE 
AS  TEACHER  AND  LECTURER 


butter  won't  '  come '  in  three,  or  five,  or  seven  min 
utes,  as  usual ;  and  with  weary  arms  on  you  go,  turn- 
itty-turn,  chunk-atty-chunk,  round  and  round,  round 
and  round,  trying  in  vain  a  pinch  of  salt,  a  little  bit  of 
warm  water,  a  small  piece  of  ice,  etc.,  and  at  last  to 
set  the  contents  of  the  churn  down  cellar  for  a 
few  hours,  then  boil  it,  let  it  cool,  and  finally  give  it 
to  the  hens.  That  also  I  have  endured.  The  hens  like 
it,  but  hardly  appreciate  my  efforts.  Dairying  is  one 
perpetual  job,  and  one  needs  to  be  a  Job  to  master  it. 

"  Then,  poultry  farming  is  a  life  study,  a  profound 
art.  Nine-tenths  lose  and  give  up  who  attempt  it.  If 
I  should  circumstantially  describe  the  history  of  my 
four  hundred  fall  chickens  you  would  better  realize 
the  myriad  difficulties  in  this  direction. 

"  I  can  not  advise  any  woman  to  go  into  farming  or 
poultry  or  dairy  business,  unless  she  has  a  certain  in 
come  and  is  willing  to  work  hard  and  endure  much. 
She  must  war  eternally  with  insects,  animals,  and  birds, 
and  expect  imposition  on  every  hand.  There  are  com 
pensations  which  almost  balance  these  hostile  forces, 
but  they  will  only  be  found  by  the  genuine  lover  of 
country  life. 

"  I  ask  most  thoughtfully,  can  nothing  be  done  to 
make  the  farmers'  wives  of  the  next  generation  a  little 
— no,  a  great  deal— more  happy,  and  to  prevent  the 
causes  of  such  overwork  ?" 

From  this  Miss  Sanborn  went  on  to  practical  advice 
and  constructive  suggestions  for  women  looking  for- 

59 


ward  to  a  country  life;  and  to  thoughtful  ideas  for  the 
betterment  of  farm  life,  particularly  from  the  point 
of  view  of  farmers'  wives  and  daughters.  Her  corre 
spondence  on  the  subject  continued  to  be  large  for 
many  years. 

There  was  nothing  in  the  resources  of  her  country 
home  which  Miss  Sanborn  valued  more  than  the 
opportunity  which  it  gave  for  entertaining  her  friends. 
She  not  only  invited  friends  for  a  day  or  a  week-end, 
but  often  entertained  clubs  and  groups,  such  as  the 
Boston  Authors  Club,  and  the  Club  of  New  Hampshire 
Women,  and  associations  of  teachers.  She  several  times 
invited  all  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  to  come 
to  her  home  to  make  or  renew  their  acquaintance 
with  her  and  to  see  and  discuss  what  she  had  been  able 
to  do  in  restoring  an  abandoned  farm.  Mr.  A.  E. 
Winship,  editor  of  the  Journal  of  Education,  wrote  of 
these  affairs: 

"But  that  which  endeared  her  to  her  friends  more 
than  perhaps  anything  else  were  her  '  occasions '  at 
the  abandoned  farm,  where  one  met  noted  people 
whom  he  never  would  have  met  elsewhere.  Those 
were  always  'Occasions'  with  a  big  O.  Fun,  such  fun 
as  we  could  have  nowhere  else,  and  big  men  and 
women  became  frisky  children  for  the  day." 

Miss  Sanborn  always  believed  in  saying  encouraging 
and  appreciative  things  to  others,  and  she  frankly  en 
joyed  appreciation  herself.  In  Abandoning  an  Adopted 


60 


Farm  she  quotes  several  "  bread  and  butter  "  letters 
from  noted  men  in  Boston. 

"It  was  a  great  day.  I  enjoyed  it  hugely.  I  gave  up 
my  choice  of  three  great  banquets,  but  I  would  not 
have  missed  your  luxurious  lark  for  three  times  three 
times  those  ordinary  hotel  spreads.  In  this  busy  life  it 
is  not  everything  that  sticks,  but  your  day  will  abide 
as  a  story  for  my  children's  children." 

And  from  another  letter : 

"  I  never  had  so  good  a  time  in  all  my  life  before. 
Never  did  nine  consecutive  hours  go  so  swiftly  and 
delightfully.  Everything  was  perfect.  Weather  made 
to  order.  Every  detail  was  carried  out.  Your  farm  was 
fairyland.  Alhambra,  a  little  touch  of  Venice,  all  com 
bined;  every  stone  so  immaculate;  the  old  barn  so  trim 
and  tidy;  the  narrow  sidewalk  so  prim;  the  decorated 
grounds,  with  stacks  of  hay-rakes  and  strings  of  lan 
terns,  so  bewitchingly  attractive ;  those  sheaves  of 
ripened  grain ;  the  teeter,  the  *  room  for  two,'  the 
lake  so  neatly  stoned  up  all  round,  the  triumphal  arch, 
the  dinner,  the  whole  thing  absolutely  delightful 
and  unrepeatable  —  once  only  in  a  lifetime." 

Of  nature  study,  Miss  Sanborn  wrote  : 

"  I  cannot  write  scientifically  or  in  long,  detailed 
observations  of  the  habits  and  manners  of  birds  ;  could 
never  spend  a  whole  afternoon  lying  on  a  hill  con 
cealed  by  bushes  and  armed  with  an  opera  glass,  and 
then  report  accurately  all  I  saw.  Life  is  too  short  for 
me  to  care  to  learn  the  languages  of  birds  or  monkeys, 

61 


or  carry  a  phonograph  into  the  henyards.  But  I  love 
birds  and  value  their  friendship.  I  even  aspire  to  a  nest 
for  myself  in  one  of  the  gigantic  twin  elms  that  meet 
over  the  northern  driveway.  There,  on  an  aerial  plat 
form,  embowered  and  shaded,  with  cool  breezes  to 
refresh  and  exhilarate,  I  may  yet  have  a  <  high  tea ' 
for  a  few  favored  friends.  I  do  not  object  to  the  theory 
of  arboreal  ancestry,  and  only  wish  I  had  not  lost  the 
art  of  climbing  .... 

"  Yes,  it  is  summer  now.  The  birds  tell  me  that, 
and  the  trees  they  love  to  live  in.  I  am  glad  to  say 
that  my  new  farm,  with  its  brooks  and  groves  and 
large  solitary  trees,  is  a  paradise  for  birds.  They  seem 
to  have  a  sense  of  proprietorship.  In  the  great  droop 
ing  elm  just  south  of  the  house  there  is  a  colony  of 
nests.  I  see  the  Baltimore  oriole  below,  and  above  the 
golden-winged  woodpecker.  The  quick  flash  of  their 
wings  and  their  loud,  cheery  call  contrast  charmingly 
with  the  quiet-flitting  and  rich,  low  notes  of  the  bril 
liant  *  hang-bird/  There  is  a  long,  dead  limb  of  the 
same  tree,  honey-combed  by  woodpeckers  of  the  past, 
now  the  abode  of  a  tribe  of  tree  swallows.  They  too 
have  adopted  an  abandoned  home,  and  in  still  evenings 
they  twitter  and  circle  about  in  the  enthusiasm  of 
entomological  research ;  not  so  bold  and  sweeping  in 
their  flight  as  their  cousins  and  neighbors  who  prefer 
my  chimneys,  and  spoil  my  newly  painted  fireplaces 
with  dropping  soot  and  broken  eggs. 

"  In  a  large  hollow  of  the  old  elm  there  was  a  nest 

62 


of  little  owls.  I  have  seen  several  fly-catchers  in  a  pear 
tree  near  the  brook.  May  they  be  blessed  with  large 
appetites  !  And  the  robins,  lots  of  them,  started  house 
keeping  with  me.  I  sympathize  with  a  remark  of  the 
late  Senator  Stanford.  When  his  gardener  told  him 
that  the  robins  were  getting  his  whole  crop  of  cherries, 
he  said  :  'Ah  !  Why,  then,  we  must  plant  more  cherry 
trees/  I  sit  on  the  porch  at  twilight  and  listen  to  the 
whip-poor-will,  the  catbird,  and  the  quail,  but  the 
robin's  song  is  the  best  of  all/' 

It  was  not  easy  for  Miss  Sanborn  to  disregard  her 
humorous  outlook  on  life  even  when  writing  on 
serious  subjects.  A  writer  in  the  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer 
of  July  1 1  th,  in  commenting  on  this  difficulty  which 
attends  all  humorists  whether  in  literature  or  poli 
tics,  says :  "  She  was  humorously  indignant  over  the 
humorous  way  in  which  her  serious  efforts  were 
misunderstood.  Her  humorous  tendencies  were  strong, 
and  she  asserted  that  they  handicapped  her,  and  yet  a 
leading  reviewer  has  said  that  *  next  to  Julia  Ward 
Howe  no  woman  so  finely  interpreted  the  intellectual 
life. ' " 

In  many  of  the  press  notices  Miss  Sanborn  is  spoken 
of  as  the  leading  woman  humorist  of  America.  Though 
her  humor  was  such  a  marked  characteristic,  its  qual 
ity  is  so  familiar  to  her  friends  that  there  is  little  need 
to  dwell  upon  it.  She  had  both  wit  and  humor,  and 
the  wit  often  showed  itself  in  sharp,  sudden  flashes, 
of  which  Miss  Frances  Willard  said,  "  Its  play  is  like 

63 


that  of  summer  lightning  on  the  clouds,  so  quick, 
varied  and  irradiant."  She  believed  in  puns  within 
reasonable  limits,  and  in  her  lecture  on  Bachelor 
Authors,  in  speaking  of  the  hymn  writer  Isaac  Watts, 
she  produced  a  pun  which  might  well  claim  the 
record  for  its  number  of  words.  In  the  New  England 
churches  of  her  childhood  there  were  upon  the  racks 
in  every  pew  copies  of  Watts'  and  Select  Hymns. 
Referring  to  his  fate  as  a  bachelor,  Miss  Sanborn 
remarked  that  it  was  rather  curious  no  lady  seemed  to 
care  for  Watts  and  select  him.  Her  friends  would 
probably  agree  that  Miss  Sanborn's  most  delightful 
humor  came  out  in  her  lively  and  spontaneous  talks. 
In  her  Memories  and  Anecdotes  in  the  description  of  the 
Princess  Massalsky,  known  under  the  pen  name  of 
Dora  D'Istria,  there  is  a  good  example  of  her  colloquial 
style  in  the  vivid  portrayal  of  a  humorous  situation. 
Dora  D'Istria,  whom  Miss  Sanborn  had  made  the 
subject  of  one  of  her  lectures,  was  an  extraordinary 
woman,  widely  known  in  Europe  as  author,  philan 
thropist,  traveler,  artist  and  advocate  of  freedom.  The 
quotation  was  well  applied  to  her  that  "she  looked 
like  Venus  and  spoke  like  Minerva."  When  Dora 
D'Istria  came  to  America,  Miss  Sanborn,  writing  in 
her  seventy-sixth  year,  says  : 

"  I  called  on  her  at  a  seashore  hotel  near  Boston.  She 
had  just  finished  her  lunch,  and  said  she  had  been  en 
joying  for  the  first  time  boiled  corn  on  the  cob.  She 
was  sitting  on  the  piazza,  rather  shabbily  dressed,  her 

64 


skirt  decidedly  travel-stained.  Traces  of  the  butter 
used  on  the  corn  were  visible  about  her  mouth  and 
she  was  smoking  a  very  large  and  strong  cigar.  A 
rocking  chair  was  to  her  a  delightful  novelty  and  she 
had  already  bought  six  large  rocking  chairs  of  wicker- 
work.  She  was  sitting  in  one  and  busily  swaying  back 
and  forward  and  said :  *  Here  I  do  repose  myself  and 
I  take  these  chairs  home  with  me  and  when  de  gen 
tlemen  and  de  ladies  do  come  to  see  me  in  Florence, 
I  show  them  how  to  repose  themselves/ 

"  Suddenly  she  looked  at  me  and  began  to  laugh 
immoderately.  *  Oh/  she  explained,  seeing  my  puz 
zled  expression,  *  I  deed  think  of  you  as  so  deefferent ; 
I  deed  think  you  were  very  tall  and  theen,  with  leetle, 
wiggly  curls  on  each  side  of  your  face/  She  evidently 
had  in  mind  the  typical  old  maid  with  gimlet  ringlets. 
So  we  sat  and  rocked  and  laughed,  for  I  was  equally 
surprised  to  meet  a  person  so  '  deefferent '  from  my 
romantic  ideal.  Like  the  two  Irishmen,  who  chancing 
to  meet  were  each  mistaken  in  the  identity  of  the 
other,  and  as  one  of  them  put  it,  *  We  looked  at  each 
other  and,  faith,  it  turned  out  to  be  nayther  of  us/  ' 

Of  Miss  Sanborn's  book  on  Southern  California, 
which  combined  truth  and  humor,  the  Los  Angeles 
Times  vi  July  10  says:  "Miss  Sanborn  found  that  this 
land,  at  which  she  poked  good-natured  fun  and  on 
which  she  bestowed  clever  praise,  benefited  her  health 
and  she  returned  again  and  again,  making  many  friends 
and  avowing  herself  to  be  *  fascinated  by  that  summer 

65 


land  of  Hellenic  skies  and  hills  of  Hymettus,  with  its 
paradoxical  antithesis  of  flowers  and  flannels,  straw 
berries  and  sealskin  sacks,  orange  blossoms  and  snow 
capped  mountains,  where  winter  looks  down  upon 
summer ;  a  topsy-turvy  land  where  you  dig  for  your 
wood  and  climb  for  your  coal ;  where  squirrels  live 
in  the  ground  while  rats  build  in  trees,  and  rivers 
flow  bottom  side  up,  invisible  most  of  the  time ;  a 
land  where  you  go  outdoors  in  December  to  get 
warm,  and  where  boys  in  December  may  snowball 
butterflies  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains/ ' 

The  kindly  feeling  of  Miss  Sanborn's  many  friends 
in  California  is  expressed  in  a  tribute  of  the  Pasadena 
Star-News  of  July  10  :  "Kate  Sanborn  will  never  see 
California  again,  and  Pasadena  will  never  welcome 
her,  bringing  her  fresh,  tireless,  vivid  enthusiasm  to 
new  fields.  Death  came  quietly  to  her  on  Sunday  at 
the  beloved  farm  at  Holliston,  the  farm  with  its  fields 
and  trees,  its  dogs  and  horses  and  pets  that  she  loved. 
The  keen,  witty,  ever -youthful  spirit  slipped  away 
softly  to  seek  new  adventures,  and  the  going  brought 
a  sense  of  personal  loss  to  hundreds  of  those  who  were 
proud  to  call  her  friend/' 

A  stranger  looking  over  a  file  of  the  reviews  of  Miss 
Sanborn's  books  would  be  struck  with  the  extraordin 
arily  favorable  tone  of  the  comment.  It  is  true  that 
her  experience  with  publishers  and  critics  was  excep 
tional,  and  the  uniformity  of  favorable  criticism  is  a 
fact  which  forms  a  part  of  any  estimate  of  her  work. 

66 


MISS  SANKORN  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  BREEZY  MEADOWS 


The  easy  good-fellowship  of  her  style,  its  freedom 
from  anything  formal  or  artificial  or  self-conscious, 
the  good-humored,  but  slap-dash  attacks  upon  all  sorts 
of  solemn  humbug,  the  compact  values  underlying 
the  attractive  style — all  help  to  explain  the  friendly 
welcome  which  awaited  Miss  Sanborn's  writings.  Al 
though  Miss  Sanborn  was  a  constant  writer  of  books 
and  contributor  to  newspapers  and  periodicals,  she  could 
say  in  looking  back  over  an  experience  of  fifty  years, 
that  she  had  never  had  a  manuscript  of  any  kind  re 
fused.  It  was  never  her  fate  to  receive  one  of  the 
printed  slips  of  polite  regret  which  are  thought  to  be 
the  common  lot  of  authors.  Most  of  the  critics  of  her 
style  speak  of  its  easy  and  familiar  qualities.  Professor 
Fred  Lewis  Pattee,  author  of  a  recent  critical  work 
upon  American  literature,  wrote  of  Miss  Sanborn's 
style : 

"It  is  like  a  week-end  visit  with  those  who  before 
were  to  me  all  too  often  mere  books  and  abstractions. 
You  make  them  alive — persons  whom  you  make  to 
appear  like  personal  friends/' 

"We  thought  we  knew  a  few  of  the  men  and  women 
described  in  Memories  and  Anecdotes"  was  the  com 
ment  of  another  reviewer,  "but  after  their  being  re 
vealed  by  Miss  Sanborn,  we  must  acknowledge  that 
they  were  merely  passing  acquaintances  until  she  spoke 
words  which  caused  them  to  open  their  hearts  to  us." 

"A  delightful  and  refined  literary  style,"  "sparkling 
wit  and  good-natured  sarcasm  ;>J  "splendid  scholarship 

67 


and  high  ideals ;"  "a  blending  of  humor  and  common 
sense,  forming  a  style  which  is  exquisitely  delightful" — 
these  are  fair  examples  of  the  general  characterization 
of  Miss  Sanborn's  work  as  a  writer.  The  following 
comment  will  appeal  to  all  who  knew  Miss  Sanborn, 
either  through  her  conversation  or  her  writings: 

"Kate  Sanborn  sees  and  sets  forth  with  the  clear  eye 
and  skilful  hand  of  genius  such  things  as  everyone  has 
experienced,  but  no  one  had  thought  to  tell  of/' 

And  in  similar  vein  another  critic  remarked : 

"Probably  as  funny  people  and  as  funny  things  are 
happening  to  everybody  as  to  Kate  Sanborn,  but  she 
has  the  rare  facility  of  seizing  the  fun  and  turning  it 
over  for  the  amusement  of  her  friends." 

Miss  Sanborn  also  appropriated  to  her  own  use  the 
amusing  happenings  of  her  experience,  and  was  often 
accustomed  to  draw  upon  them  when  some  special  trait 
or  resource  was  called  into  play.  Such  was  the  case  of 
the  "old  fellow"  mentioned  in  her  Bygone  Sketches, 
"tall,  lank,  thin,  with  a  narrow  head  and  long  straight 
hair,  to  whom  my  father  gave  many  articles  of  cloth 
ing.  I  was  in  my  father's  study  when  Professor 
Sanborn,  finding  nothing  else  available,  had  bestowed 
an  old  high  hat  of  abnormal  size.  It  was  tried  on 
and  the  head  of  the  visitor  was  completely  obscured. 
The  hat  rested  on  his  shoulders,  only  a  few  wisps  of 
the  long  hair  which  he  wore  in  a  thin  imitation  of 
distinguished  clergymen  and  statesmen  being  visible 
at  the  neck. 

68 


"  'You  can't  wear  that',  said  my  father,  decidedly. 

"  'It  is  a  leetle  large/  said  the  grateful  recipient,  re 
appearing  from  beneath  the  extinguisher,  'but  I  guess 
I'll  take  it  along.  My  hair  may  thicken  up.' ' 

Thereafter  whenever  circumstances  looked  particu 
larly  unpromising  Miss  Sanborn  was  wont  to  remark 
with  a  cheerful  smile  that  something  better  "may 
thicken  up." 

Or  she  might  in  such  a  case  fall  back  upon  the 
phrase  of  an  early  instructor  who  came  to  Dartmouth 
to  teach  the  modern  languages  of  foreign  parts,  and 
whose  own  acquaintance  with  English  had  not  become 
discriminating.  He  came  in  one  day  to  report  the  de 
mise  of  a  near  and  dear  friend,  and  exclaimed  in  his 
utter  dejection,  "I  am  vere  mooch  disgoosted." 

So  of  the  solemn  individual  who  had  retired  from 
business  to  engage  in  the  cultivation  of  swine,  and  who 
introduced  himself  in  calling  upon  Miss  Sanborn,  by 
saying,  "We  have  a  common  bond  of  interest — hogs." 

So  also  of  the  excited  person  with  whom  there  had 
been  a  discussion  over  some  business  transaction,  who 
walked  up  hurriedly  from  Metcalf  station,  flourishing 
papers  in  his  hands,  and  exclaiming,  "I've  got  the 
dockermunts,  Miss  Metcalf,  I've  got  the  dockermunts." 

Miss  Kate  liked  also  to  recall  the  mental  picture  of 
a  faithful  coachman,  a  huge  Irishman,  whom  from 
her  upper  windows  she  saw  and  heard  standing  off 
some  bore  or  agent  who  was  insisting  on  an  interview: 
"I  tell  yer,"  he  said,  "Miss  Sanborn's  not  at  home. 

69 


She's  gone  away  to  the  Adonoracks  or  somewhere." 
Perhaps  nothing  was  more  often  remarked  upon  by 
those  who  talked  with  Miss  Sanborn  or  reviewed  her 
literary  work  than  her  inexhaustible  fund  of  anecdotes, 
illustrations  and  apt  citations.  It  had  been  her  good 
fortune  to  know  an  unusual  number  of  famous  racon 
teurs,  and  their  stories  were  filed  away  in  her  retentive 
memory,  to  be  brought  out  as  circumstances  might 
suggest.  The  interesting  people  of  literary  history,  such 
as  Dr.  Johnson,  Sidney  Smith,  Charles  Lamb,  Tom 
Hood,  Theodore  Hook,  Madame  DeStael  and  Lady 
Morgan,  were  almost  as  real  to  her  as  were  living 
people.  She  had  at  her  tongue's  end  everything  that 
had  been  written  by  or  about  such  persons,  and  seemed 
almost  to  carry  on  conversations  with  them. 

Miss  Sanborn  gained  recognition  in  other  lines  of 
literary  work  than  the  writing  of  books.  In  the 
notices  of  her  career  she  was  often  described  as  a 
journalist.  For  most  of  her  active  life  she  was  a  con 
tributor  to  some  newspaper,  writing  a  weekly  letter 
on  current  events,  or  a  column  of  literary  comment, 
or  a  department  of  book  reviews.  To  fill  any  bits  of 
spare  time  in  her  busy  life  she  had  a  number  of 
literary  diversions,  such  as  printing  at  the  end  of  the 
year  a  string  of  stories  about  the  unusual  or  ludicrous 
incidents  of  farm  life,  and  sending  the  leaflets  to  friends 
at  Christmas.  She  always  liked  selective  work,  as 
shown  in  her  calendars,  some  of  which,  as  well  as 
My  Literary  Zoo  and  her  volume  on  the  Wit  of 

7° 


Women,  were  worthy  of  being  called  anthologies.  In 
making  up  all  these  volumes  of  selections  which  ap 
pealed  to  her,  Miss  Sanborn's  guide  was  her  optim 
ism,  and  her  controlling  thought  was  expressed  in  the 
preface  to  her  Sunshine  Calendar :  "Modern  authors 
indulge  altogether  too  much  in  the  morbid  and  un 
intelligible.  Pessimism  is  contemptible  and  cowardly 
in  print  or  in  life/' 

The  Somerville  Journal,  to  which  Miss  Sanborn  had 
contributed  book  reviews  and  weekly  letters,  calls 
attention  to  another  field  in  which  she  did  pioneer 
service : 

"Miss  Sanborn  was  one  of  the  pioneer  club  women 
of  Massachusetts,  having  been  the  founder  and  first 
president  of  the  New  Hampshire  Daughters.  She 
was  a  member  of  Sorosis  of  New  York,  and  the  Bos 
ton  Authors  Club,  and  had  recently  been  made  an 
honorary  member  of  the  Professional  Women's  Club 
of  Boston/'  The  association  with  the  club  women  of 
her  native  state  was  an  especially  valued  experience. 

Naturally  Miss  Sanborn  was  among  the  first  to  real 
ize  the  new  era  which  was  opening  for  women.  She 
felt  that  adaptation  to  the  changing  conditions  must 
be  a  matter  of  time,  but  there  was  no  more  vigorous 
advocate  of  a  "square  deal"  for  women.  "She  has 
always  rejoiced,"  says  a  writer  in  the  Louisville  Post, 
"in  the  achievements  of  women,  and  her  ardent  fem 
inism  has  been  more  effective  than  we  realize." 

In  looking  at  Miss  Sanborn's  life   as  a  whole,   it 

7' 


seems  possible  to  trace  the  same  influences  that  had 
moulded  her  character  in  the  early  years  at  home.  At 
that  time,  when  the  Puritan  race  had  reached  its 
mellow  maturity  and  before  its  blood  was  thinned  by 
emigration,  it  developed  among  its  other  homemade 
products  a  friendly  spirit  of  neighborliness.  A  good 
example  was  the  shrewd,  kindly,  old-fashioned  coun 
try  doctor  like  those  at  Hanover.  Such  a  man  was  a 
living  tonic,  knowing  all  about  his  patients  and  brac 
ing  them  up  by  the  mental  medicine  of  his  hearty, 
magnetic  personality.  Miss  Sanborn  never  lost  this 
human,  neighborly,  thoughtful  interest.  The  number 
of  her  friends  who  felt  their  dependence  upon  her 
sane  and  stimulating  counsel  was  surprising.  Her 
tremendous  energy  and  her  wholesome  ambition  to  be 
doing  something  worth  while  seemed  to  grow  with 
her  years.  No  doubt  one  of  the  reasons  for  her  suc 
cess  was  her  carrying  into  a  life  of  broad  activities  the 
natural,  direct  manners  and  concrete  human  interests 
of  her  early  surroundings.  This  was  well  brought  out 
by  the  literary  critic  of  the  Boston  Herald  in  review 
ing  one  of  her  books : 

"  Miss  Kate  Sanborn  is  a  natural  Yankee  woman,  and 
whatever  subject  she  may  take  up  is  sure  to  be  enliv 
ened  by  her  wit  and  humor.  She  touches  no  subject 
without  leaving  it  in  a  different  light  from  what  it 
was  in  before.  It  is  the  perpetual  mingling  of  the 
Yankee  woman  and  the  woman  of  the  world  which 
surprises  and  delights  one.  She  is  almost  the  only  living 

72 


writer  in  New  England  among  women  who  can 
write  entertainingly  for  the  amusement  of  her  readers." 
At  the  time  when  she  began  her  work,  the  Yankee 
traits  of  ingenuity  and  invention  had  broadened  in 
their  scope  and  New  England  was  sending  out  men 
who  were  pioneers  and  originators  —  men  like  Gen 
eral  Dodge  and  Senator  Morrill,  who  have  been  men 
tioned  as  coming  from  the  Hanover  region.  General 
Dodge  was  literally  a  roadbuilder,  for  he  was  the 
chief  engineer  of  the  first  railroad  to  the  Pacific. 
Justin  S.  Morrill,  whose  friendship  Miss  Sanborn 
prized  so  highly,  was  a  striking  instance  of  the  men 
who  originate  policies  of  lasting  and  expanding  in 
fluence.  The  far-reaching  effect  of  his  Act  to  Establish 
Colleges  for  Agricultural,  Scientific,  and  Industrial 
Purposes  is  only  beginning  to  be  realized.  Miss  Sanborn 
was  inspired  by  the  same  fine  enthusiasm  as  these  men 
whom  she  saw  going  out  into  the  world  and  achieving 
noble  careers.  She  broke  through  the  limitations  by 
which  the  women  of  her  time  were  hampered,  and 
became  herself  in  many  worthy  fields,  a  pathfinder  and 
pioneer.  The  natural  measures  of  a  strong  personality 
seem  to  be  the  range  of  its  influence  and  the  sort  of 
impression  it  has  left  upon  other  people.  Those  who 
are  widely  known  are  generally  persons  who  have 
appeared  habitually  before  the  public  or  have  gained 
attention  by  some  great  discovery  or  achievement,  or 
in  case  of  literary  people,  those  who  have  written  popu 
lar  works  of  fiction.  Miss  Sanborn  many  years  ago, 

73 


retired  from  the  lecture  field,  and  the  books  which 
she  wrote  were  generally  such  as  appealed  to  some 
special  interest.  Yet  it  has  often  been  remarked  that 
her  influence  was  to  a  surprising  extent  far-reaching 
and  persistent.  She  was  known  in  almost  every  part 
of  the  country,  and  her  memory  is  cherished  for  her 
bright  and  discriminating  views  of  life  and  for  her 
sane  and  helpful  suggestions  in  regard  to  ways  of 
living.  In  Boston  she  was  intimately  known  and  a 
few  additional  comments  from  Boston  newspapers  may 
aid  in  giving  a  just  idea  of  the  esteem  in  which  she 
was  held. 

'The  Advertiser  of  July  i  ith  said  :  "Human,  humor 
ous,  delightful  and  lovable  Kate  Sanborn  has  been 
carried  away  from  this  world  of  strife,  and  our  elders 
who  found  invigorating  enjoyment  in  her  spirited 
humor,  pungent  pricks  at  all  that  was  artificial  in  life, 
and  contagious  optimism,  will  miss  a  '  best  friend/ 
She  is  an  admirable  example  of  the  importance 
of  industry  as  a  help  to  inheritances  of  talent  and 
humor.  Before  she  went  to  Smith  College  as  a  teacher, 
she  got  worlds  of  experience  teaching  and  lecturing 
about  the  country ;  and  her  sparkling  humor  made  her 
friends  with  all  she  met.  Always  a  '  homey '  woman, 
she  found  nothing  in  life  so  good  as  caring  for  her 
quaint  house  and  beautiful  farm  at  Metcalf.  She  lived 
as  she  wrote,  simply,  wisely,  and  well.  Her  Metcalf 
neighbors  considered  the  week  ill  spent  if  Kate  San- 
born  didn't  have  them  over  for  an  hour  of  real  New 

74 


England  talk,  punctuated  by  sober  war  thoughts  and 
relieved  by  her  ready  wit." 

It  is  the  comment  of  the  Traveler  of  July  10  that 
"The  little  band  associated  with  the  'Augustan  Age' 
of  literature  in  this  country  is  diminished  by  the  death 
of  Kate  Sanborn.  She  was  a  well-established  essayist 
when  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Longfellow,  and  Thoreau 
were  in  their  prime.  She  was  a  student  of  literature 
and  a  pungent  analyst  of  life." 

The  Post  of  the  same  date  says,  "The  passing  of 
Kate  Sanborn  leaves  a  gap  in  the  pleasurable  memor 
ies  of  our  people.  For  more  than  two  generations,  the 
name  of  Kate  Sanborn  has  stood  for  so  much  of  that 
which  makes  for  inspiration,  for  delight,  for  counsel 
in  the  intimate  relations  of  life,  and  for  instruction 
also  in  literary  understanding,  that  the  loss  is  widely 
felt  to  be  personal.  The  work  of  Miss  Sanborn  is 
memorable  for  its  force  in  the  direction  of  the  thought, 
the  purpose,  the  inspiration  of  our  people.  Hers  was 
a  long  life,  approaching  closely  the  limit  of  the  Psalm 
ist,  and  in  it  she  won  a  place  very  near,  not  only  to 
the  people  to  whom  she  immediately  spoke,  but  to 
those  of  us  who  follow  her." 

Miss  Sanborn's  dear  and  honored  friend,  Miss  Edna 
Dean  Proctor,  has  crystalized  the  description  of  her 
character  in  a  tribute  written  for  the  Granite  Monthly 
of  Concord,  New  Hampshire:  "A  warm  heart,  a 
valiant  spirit,  trenchant  yet  kindly  wit,  and  keen  in 
sight,  love  of  work  and  high  ambition,  were  combined 

75 


in  her  to  form  a  unique,  delightful,  vivid  personality. 
Her  books,  her  generosities,  her  brilliant  sallies,  her 
loyal  friendships  will  long  be  treasured  by  her  host  of 
friends.  Asking  one  who  knew  her  well  what  single 
adjective  would  best  describe  her,  the  answer  was, 
4  Refreshing.'  This  was  most  true  of  her.  There  was 
nothing  monotonous  or  stereotyped  about  her.  Her 
entrance  into  a  room  was  like  a  cool  breeze  springing 
up  in  a  tropic  day.  Who  that  has  enjoyed  her  hospi 
tality  can  ever  forget  her  home  and  her? — so  gracious, 
so  hearty  she  was— so  lavish  of  her  treasures  for  the 
pleasure  of  her  guests.  Such  welcome  be  hers  in  her 
new  life  as  she  gave  her  friends  in  this !" 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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[-•  ••-!•*.     n        1ft  A*? 

RW 

NOV  2V  B92 

rw>  -?•* 

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LD  21-100m-12,  '43  (8796s) 

Kate   Sanb 


rn. 


M10I87S 


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